What Bart spoke about.

15 Sep

2026

EN Speech

Findings and recommendations of the Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield (debate)

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear Minister, Russian intelligence officers move in and out of Europe with ease to sabotage trains and aeroplanes, to murder or to influence our democracies. They swap passports the way we change our clothes. But Russian assassins and Russian spies cannot change their fingerprints. They cannot change their iris scans, and they cannot change their faces. So mand…

7 Jul

2026

EN Speech

Presentation of the Action Plan on Cybersecurity and AI (debate)

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If I understand you well, you think the copyright directive or the GDPR are no hurdles to training large language models. But if we set up a hearing with AI experts, you and me together, very soon, on the shortest possible notice, and you find me one AI expert that confirms your lecture on this, we agree. But I'm afraid I've spoken to dozens and they all disagree. It's impossible. So we have to de…

7 Jul

2026

EN Question

Presentation of the Action Plan on Cybersecurity and AI (debate)

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Thank you, Mr Lagodinsky. You say that regulations in Europe are not a problem for the development of frontier AI models. I beg to differ. The copyright directive is very different from the US and China. But let me just zoom in on one aspect of the GDPR. I'd like to have your opinion on it as an expert. If you make neural networks, you do a hypothesis – in the style of Sergey Lagodinsky, I want to…

7 Jul

2026

EN Speech

Presentation of the Action Plan on Cybersecurity and AI (debate)

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Mr President, I call on all business leaders in Europe to take good note of today's recommendations on AI and cybersecurity, released by the European Commission and ENISA. It is not business as usual anymore. Your software and IT systems will be tested by hackers. Aided by the latest AI models, hackers will operate at the speed of light, and will try to put you out of business. So, today's recomme…

16 Jun

2026

NL Answer

Achieving digital sovereignty and resilience for Europe, in light of recent developments affecting access to advanced AI technologies (debate)

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16 Jun

2026

EN Speech

Achieving digital sovereignty and resilience for Europe, in light of recent developments affecting access to advanced AI technologies (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, sometimes it takes a political stunt to get things moving. Kennedy's moonshot speech, of course, the creation of Airbus – bold declarations that precede the reality they eventually created. So did the first European Chips Act. It was ambitious, but it did not get things moving yet because it forgot to address the demand. Who was going to buy those advanced chips? I…

19 May

2026

EN Speech

EU cybersecurity and preparedness in view of advanced AI systems (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, we stand at the brink of a potential cyber bloodbath. AI models can now hack any system on a large scale and with the speed of light. Criminals, nation states, will use these AI models against our banks, our supermarkets, and all of our society will be tested. The good news is that these same AI models can also protect any system at scale and at the speed of light. S…

11 Mar

2026

EN Speech

EUCO and situation in the Middle East (joint debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, in the past 24 hours, the Islamic regime has put mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil, gas and electricity prices will spike even higher for our citizens and for our industry. Europe has about 100 minesweepers and minehunters. The United States owns only four. Our navies have practised for such a scenario for decades. So do what needs to be done to secure freedo…

10 Feb

2026

EN Speech

European response to the attacks on the Ukrainian energy system causing a humanitarian crisis (debate)

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Let's be very short. It should have happened a long time ago.

10 Feb

2026

EN Answer

European response to the attacks on the Ukrainian energy system causing a humanitarian crisis (debate)

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There's only one answer, Mr Van Lanschot. It's how we won against the communists in the 90s. It is that they feel they can't win in the long term. We have to put forward long‑term investments to support Ukraine, so that Putin realises he can never win. It's the only way. The only way to help them. Like your colleague Mr Sinkevičius rightfully said, putting forward humanitarian aid is fine, it's go…

10 Feb

2026

EN Speech

European response to the attacks on the Ukrainian energy system causing a humanitarian crisis (debate)

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Mr President, while everyone was busy with Venezuela and Greenland, Kyiv has reached a tipping point. More than 500 000 people left the city and energy supplies are down in the midst of winter. So stop being complacent about what we already have achieved for Ukraine. The only thing that matters is whether it's enough. We were also busy with NATO Secretary-General Rutte, who said we need the US for…

20 Jan

2026

EN Speech

Brutal repression against protesters in Iran (debate)

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Madam President, High Representative, let's call things as they are. Italy, Spain and France are against putting the Islamic Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) on the EU terrorism list. Let's call things as they are. France, Spain and Italy say there are legal obstacles. Well, maybe murdering people inside Europe or funding several terrorist organisations or burning synagogues in Düsseldorf. Maybe…

20 Jan

2026

EN Speech

Presentation of the Cybersecurity Act (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, thank you, Commissioner, for putting forward this legislation. It's much, much appreciated what you've done, and I really, really want to thank you for your courage in this one. And what struck me most when you just stood here is that you said we shouldn't be naive about foreign powers switching off critical infrastructure, and I agree. In 1917, the English cut Dutch…

16 Dec

2025

EN Speech

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

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, this week, Europe votes to stop buying Russian gas. No more weaponisation of energy dependencies – good. But in doing so, we're behaving like a goldfish. A goldfish swims around its bowl, forgets where it's been, and it starts all over again. In our European fishbowl, we are rightfully electrifying our continents. But 80 % of residential grid batteries in Europe ar…

25 Nov

2025

EN Speech

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

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, when China stopped delivering critical raw earth materials to Japan in 2010, Japan wisely reduced Chinese dependencies within years. When the United States was confronted with similar restrictions half a year ago, they acted with speed and ruthlessness, co-financing new mines in Brazil, long-term offtake agreements across Asia, EUR 8 billion of investment in Aus…

10 Sep

2025

EN Speech

Implementation of EU-US trade deal and the prospect of wider EU trade agreements (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Council, as markets outside Europe are increasingly closing for our entrepreneurs, I would like to ask the Commission to open up new markets for our businesses, to finish new trade deals fast. But trade negotiations with the Gulf region have dragged on for 34 years; India, 18 years; Latin America, 26 years and counting; Malaysia, 15 years, etc. It's too slow for this ge…

8 Jul

2025

EN Speech

Preparation for the 2025 EU–China Summit - Tackling China's critical raw materials export restrictions

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Madam President, Commissioner, Europe faces dual coercion: from US tariffs, yes, but far more dangerously from China's strategic chokehold on rare earth exports. Gallium, germanium – critical elements – are already no longer reaching our industries. Colleagues, remember that no guided missile can be produced without gallium. It's important because the Chinese Foreign Minister told High Representat…

18 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Electricity grids: the backbone of the EU energy system (debate)

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, Portugal and Spain's meltdown of the electricity grid in April happened because 2.5 GW fell off the electricity grid in capacity. Chinese company Huawei alone controls a solar inverter capacity in Europe of more than 100 GW. Six Chinese vendors collectively hold more than 200 GW of inverter capacity across Europe. That is more than enough to destabilise the enti…

17 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Situation in the Middle East (joint debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, High Representative, Israel is not attacking Iran. It is striking the brutal regime of Khamenei and his Revolutionary Guard. And Israel did what it had to do to show how to deal with murderous dictatorships that only understand force. The ayatollahs have thus far remained in power because of the support of Russia and China. This alliance fuelled a sustained and gr…

1 Apr

2025

EN Speech

CFSP and CSDP (Article 36 TUE) (joint debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, dear Vice-President/High Representative, the biggest victim of the past months of Trump being in office is, of course, Russia. For the past 108 years, generations of Russians have been told that everything wrong in Russian society is to blame on the United States. It's the fault of the Americans. But now that Russia has gloriously won the second Cold War and increasing…

11 Mar

2025

EN Speech

White paper on the future of European defence (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, having heard the President of the Commission and the President of the Council this morning, and you, dear Commissioner, just now, I worry that we got it wrong, at least partially. It's not about rearming individual countries, as in the Cold War. That would be insufficient, as it does not deter our adversaries. It is about collective rearming into an alliance which is ab…

13 Feb

2025

EN Speech

Threats to EU sovereignty through strategic dependencies in communication infrastructure (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, the main takeaway from Georgia Meloni's close manoeuvres with Elon Musk and his company, Starlink, is that it sends a clear signal to Europe. The European alternative to Starlink – 'IRIS square', not 'IRIS two', Commissioner – must be accelerated. Europe should work harder and faster. Sure, like many colleagues have said, for Italy there are clear and imminent dang…

11 Feb

2025

EN Speech

US AI chip export restrictions: a challenge to European AI development and economic resilience (debate)

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, the United States of America is blocking Europe from buying its most advanced chips for artificial intelligence. Well, at least some countries can still buy the chips, but not those countries who plan to actually do something with it, like building European AI factories or high‑performance computing centres. It's a clear attempt by our ally to put European AI co…

21 Jan

2025

EN Speech

Need to enforce the Digital Services Act to protect democracy on social media platforms including against foreign interference and biased algorithms (debate)

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, promoting one political party during an election while suppressing others, or even rolling out the red carpet for Russian disinformation campaigns on a Chinese platform, it reminds Europe of its darkest hours. Yet it has happened in Romania. And it's happening in Germany. So no doubt what needs to be done: uphold and enforce the law. But if that…

17 Dec

2024

EN Answer

Misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms, such as TikTok, and related risks to the integrity of elections in Europe (debate)

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I'll tell you what I did, I protested, sir. I protest again against the completely irresponsible way we are delivering ourselves in the hands of China, including TikTok. So should you. Foreign interference is not something you ridicule about. It's not whataboutism – do something about it. This Commission has the tools – finish the job in order to keep us safe now and in the long-term future. That …