What Tom spoke about.

17

Dec

2025

NL Answer

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 18-19 December 2025, in particular the need to support Ukraine, transatlantic relations and the EU’s strategic autonomy (debate)

Mr Oliveira, thank you for this question, but I do not think you have listened to me well enough. We disagree on many points, but on one point I think we agree: There is no reason why the European Union should be surprised by the noises coming from the United States. Our mission is to ensure our own independence.…

17

Dec

2025

NL Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 18-19 December 2025, in particular the need to support Ukraine, transatlantic relations and the EU’s strategic autonomy (debate)

Mr President, the value of the concept of wake-up call greatly diminishes every time we use it but then refuse to wake up afterwards. How is it possible that we are still surprised when the United States says for the umpteenth time that we will have to figure it out for ourselves when it comes to our security? Just as we were surprised when our reliance on Russian gas was used as a weapon by Putin…

16

Dec

2025

NL Speech

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Grids package and tackling raising energy prices through robust infrastructure (debate)

25

Nov

2025

NL Speech

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Effective use of the EU trade and industrial policy to tackle China’s export restrictions (debate)

Mr President, the answer to how we should arm ourselves against export restrictions from China is, in my opinion, simple. The position on the battlefield determines your position at the negotiating table, and on the battlefield of the global economy, Europe's position is weak. We have been naive and have become dependent on raw materials and technology from China. We have allowed Chinese operation…

21

Oct

2025

NL Answer

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Commission Work Programme 2026 (debate)

I believe that we are indeed in agreement on the strength that the region can offer, including in solving European problems, and in particular the strength of those industrial clusters in the regions, which means that money will indeed have to go there, precisely to meet those European challenges. But I think it is very important, as I said in my speech, that we can force countries if they do not …

21

Oct

2025

NL Speech

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Commission Work Programme 2026 (debate)

Yes, I would have expected that, given the campaign.

21

Oct

2025

NL Speech

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Commission Work Programme 2026 (debate)

Mr President, the CDA believes that the European Commission's work programme should focus on three key issues. First, the basis must be put in order. This means prioritising sufficient affordable and clean energy, controlling migration and strengthening our defence and security. These are core tasks of the government that are really under-performing and that need to be tackled with urgency and thr…

8

Oct

2025

NL Speech

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United response to recent Russian violations of the EU Member States’ airspace and critical infrastructure (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Russia is systematically testing the protection of our critical infrastructure, but there is also a threat from within. Last week I was welcomed in the ports of Gdynia and Gdańsk in Poland. Both ports are located within a radius of one hundred kilometers from the Russian border at Kaliningrad. Every day there are concerns about the disruption of GPS signals, the…

7

Oct

2025

EN Speech

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Inland waterway transport: River Information Services (RIS) (A10-0033/2025 - Tom Berendsen) (vote)

Madam President, dear colleagues, inland waterways have a great potential, connecting ports, cities and industries in 13 Member States. But the sector is facing challenges. The many family‑owned businesses in the sector are committed to decarbonising, but they need our support in the business case for clean vessels and they need sufficient availability of new technologies, alternative fuels and re…

10

Sep

2025

NL Speech

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State of the Union (debate)

Mr President, we are experiencing a geopolitical tipping point. The law of the fittest seems to apply more and more at the expense of the international legal order. Europe's vulnerabilities are becoming visible and are being used as a weapon against us. Mrs von der Leyen, the great challenges of our time indeed call for a strong Europe. A strong Europe regulates a number of basic issues: sufficien…

18

Jun

2025

EN Speech

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Clean Industrial Deal (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, dependence is a risk. We have seen that in our reliance on the US for defence, on Russia for gas, and on China for goods and natural resources. And now we are at risk of becoming dependent on others for our basic industries, the backbone of our economy. Steel, chemicals, fertilisers: they're not just products, they are the foundation of today's economy and of tomorro…

21

May

2025

NL Speech

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Russian energy phase-out, Nord Stream and the EU's energy sovereignty (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, over three years ago Russia invaded Ukraine. More than three years ago, we were right here: Stop baiting Putin's war greenhouse. Stop importing Russian oil and gas. Not an easy task, because our dependence was high, but we lowered imports. It is painful to see that we are still getting 13% of our gas imports from Russia. It is even more painful to see that these…

2

Apr

2025

NL Speech

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Energy-intensive industries (debate)

Mr President, factories throughout the European Union are shutting down, production is being scaled down and investments are not being made because Europe has become too expensive to produce. This is when we desperately need the basic industry. Steel, chemicals and cleaner fuels are essential for our economy and our security. We must not become dependent on others for this. We have the knowledge, …

1

Apr

2025

NL Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 20 March 2025 (debate)

Mr President, if I had told someone ten years ago, on this day, that we would have war on our continent today, that the United States would abandon us and that European industry would be in severe weather, that person would have looked at the calendar and judged it as a bad one-april joke. However, it is the harsh reality. European countries have been extremely naive. We have looked from our lazy …

12

Feb

2025

NL Speech

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Competitiveness Compass (debate)

Mr President, the problems facing our economy are obvious. Affordable energy is a problem. Unfair competition from China in particular is a problem. Dependence on raw materials and semi-finished products from other parts of the world is a problem. As Europe, we are lagging behind on important technology and many companies are facing a wall of laws and regulations. It is therefore excellent that th…

21

Jan

2025

NL Speech

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Need to detect and to counter sabotage by the Russian shadow fleet, damaging critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot accept the sabotage of our own important infrastructure a few kilometres off our coast. Our cables for data and electricity at the bottom of the sea are invisible highways for our energy and communication. Many Europeans may not see the importance of this infrastructure. Russia and China clearly do. The Russian shadow fleet sails daily over our infrast…

18

Dec

2024

NL Speech

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Restoring the EU’s competitive edge – the need for an impact assessment on the Green Deal policies (topical debate)

Mr President, the European Union is the second largest economic power in the world. Now that we are being strongly challenged by other major power blocs, there is a huge task ahead of us: preserving our competitiveness, making our economy sustainable, protecting our way of life. And all of that at the same time. This is far from simple. We have a war on our continent, major dependencies on energy,…

18

Dec

2024

NL Speech

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Preparation of the European Council of 19-20 December 2024 (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the year 2024: war on our continent, while we depend on the United States for our security; high European energy prices and, at the same time, increasing dependence on China for our raw materials; our industry, our competitiveness and our jobs, which were under pressure. For families, prices and bills are rising. At the kitchen table one wonders: Is there going …

13

Nov

2024

NL Speech

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Deplorable escalation of violence around the football match in the Netherlands and the unacceptable attacks against Israeli football fans (debate)

Mr President, what happened last week in Amsterdam is reprehensible and appalling. People who are hunted and beaten up for being Jewish, or who are forced by thugs to show their passports: These are images that we never wanted to see again in the Netherlands and in Europe, but that are now on our retina again. The fact that the Jewish community does not feel safe in Amsterdam is a disgrace. The po…

23

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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EU actions against the Russian shadow fleets and ensuring a full enforcement of sanctions against Russia (debate)

Mr President, imagine yourself: A stormy day, big waves and thick fog. An old and poorly maintained ship sails across the North Sea. 100 million litres of oil on board. The ship is not or hardly insured and sails under the flag of a country such as Liberia or Sierra Leone, where safety checks are inadequate. The crew is poorly trained and does not speak English. This is not a scene from an action …

23

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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U-turn on EU bureaucracy: the need to axe unnecessary burdens and reporting to unleash competitiveness and innovation (topical debate)

Mr President, one of the most important contributions that we as politicians can make to competitiveness and entrepreneurship is to tackle the regulatory burden. I would like to hold up a mirror to this House. Because despite all our good intentions to make the world a better place, we as a parliament regularly miss the mark. Not every challenge requires a detailed European law as a solution. Yet …

23

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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Tackling the steel crisis: boosting competitive and sustainable European steel and maintaining quality jobs (debate)

Mr President, steel is of great importance to our economy, but our European steel industry is being outcompeted, mainly for three reasons. First of all, China has a huge overproduction. This surplus of steel is now being dumped cheaply on the world market, and European industry cannot compete with that. Second, energy prices in Europe are two to three times higher than in the US and China. It is t…

8

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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The crisis facing the EU’s automotive industry, potential plant closures and the need to enhance competitiveness and maintain jobs in Europe (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a great deal is coming together in this dossier, and it presents us with a very difficult assessment in which one side of this house chooses to sweep all the rules off the table and the other side of the house chooses to continue with blinders on. I can tell you: Neither is the solution. First of all, we have promised our children to work towards a climate-neutr…

17

Sep

2024

NL Speech

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The future of European competitiveness (debate)

Mr President, the analysis in Mr Draghi's report is crystal clear: Europe has been naive for too long and as a result has become dependent on the United States for its security, for its energy from Russia and for its stuff from China. This needs to change. In the debate on the proposals, let us focus on the content and let us keep our eyes on future generations. On the one hand, we should not dwel…

23

Apr

2024

NL Speech

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Conclusions of the recent European Council meetings, in particular on a new European Competitiveness deal and the EU strategic agenda 2024-2029 (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to discuss the Council conclusions. And I have to admit that I am here with a double feeling. I read conclusions from our Heads of Government on strengthening our competitiveness. That sounds very nice and recognizable, because we as EVP under the leadership of Manfred Weber have been advocating for that for years. But there is plenty of reason…