What Bart spoke about.

28

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Foreign interference and espionage by third country actors in European universities (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Canada has published a list of universities and institutions which pose a risk to Canada's national security. There is no equivalent list in Europe. The United States work with security clearances before sensitive technology can be exposed to foreign students. In Japan and Australia, risky collaborations with foreign universities are routinely reviewed and can be dissol…

27

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and hybrid threats in the Baltic Sea (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, Russia is actively mapping drinking water supplies in Sweden and Finland with the intent to sabotage. And Russia is trying to map and sabotage cargo aeroplanes in Germany, bringing goods to Ukraine. And yes, Russia is addressing the threat of internet cables with how they perceive it, and they are sabotaging our internet cables in our seas. But then, why, collea…

14

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Enhancing Europe’s civilian and defence preparedness and readiness (debate)

Madam President, in the past 25 years, Europe's defence spending was more or less stable, while China has increased its defence spending with 600 % and Russia with 300 %. Russia is already at war. China is preparing for one. When President Xi would decide to move on Taiwan with a blockade and a counter‑blockade from the American navy would follow, trade flows to Europe would immediately halter and…

17

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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Global measures towards social media platforms - Strengthening the role of DSA and protecting democracy and freedom in the online sphere (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, colleagues, since 2017, the Chinese state can demand from any Chinese company to help execute Chinese offensive espionage operations abroad and its operations to influence elections abroad. One hundred and fifty million – mainly young – Europeans have installed the Chinese app TikTok. Its algorithms help them decide what to like, what to trust and who to vote for. …

17

Jul

2024

EN Speech

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Announcements concerning the ninth parliamentary term

Madam President, today is a sad day. Today, exactly 10 years ago, flight MH17 leaving from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down – a shameful, shameful deed. Shooting down innocent people from ten kilometres altitude, 298 innocent people were killed: 196 of them – I must reiterate, dear President – were Dutch, four Belgians, four Germans, but 17 nationalities in total. More than 80 children were…

24

Apr

2024

NL Speech

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Iran’s unprecedented attack against Israel, the need for de-escalation and an EU response (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the fact that Russia, China and Iran are on their way together to form a bloc against ours is now widely recognised and it is the issue of our time. Today it is Iran's turn. I would like to thank the co-rapporteurs for the unanimity with which this House called last night in the negotiations for the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guard on the EU terror list.…

10

Apr

2024

EN Speech

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New allegations of Russian interference in the European Parliament, in the upcoming EU elections and the impact on the Union (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, 2024 is the high mass for Chinese and Russian disinformation. In 2024, more than 50% of the world population will vote. Free people will use what China and Russia fear most: democracy. There’s no surprise that we see active measures online, in the real world, and I would like to thank the Czech intelligence agency for actually disclosing that, for their openness on…

11

Mar

2024

EN Speech

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Horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, colleagues, thanks to the pressure that’s been put in this House, these European Union buildings like this one are fully equipped with Western hard- and software. But our colleagues in the African Union were less fortunate. Their building is fully equipped with Chinese equipment and, demonstrably, that is being spied and being used against them in their own buildin…

29

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Commission recommendation on secure and resilient submarine cables (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, I checked: it’s my 12th speech in this Parliament on the security of subsea infrastructure. So you might conclude I’m obsessed with it. But I guarantee you there’s someone even more obsessed with it and his name is Vladimir Putin. NATO and individual countries – like Tom Berendsen just said – are already operationally active to start countering Putin’s sabotage capabili…

28

Feb

2024

NL Speech

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Strengthening European Defence in a volatile geopolitical landscape - Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2023 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2023 (joint debate - European security and defence)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you today as a trans-Atlanticus, so as someone who appreciates that our military security is only guaranteed by the superior military strategic capability of the Americans. This is the main reason why Putin is not attacking European NATO member states for the time being. But we in Europe have alienated those American friends from ourselves. With a…

27

Feb

2024

NL Speech

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Unitary supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products - Unitary supplementary certificate for medicinal products - Supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products (recast) - Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (recast) - Standard essential patents (joint debate - Patents)

Mr President, Commissioner, it is always very careful when the government calls for a fair price to be paid for something. The remedy is often worse than the ailment. Take a look, for example, at how Minister Hugo de Jonge has shut down the housing market in the Netherlands. Sure, he forced lower rents, but investors are now building fewer homes and the market is closing. Something similar is now …

7

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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The fight against hate speech and disinformation: responsibility of social platforms within the Digital Services Act (topical debate)

Mr President, dear Minister, dear Commissioner, I think today we have to speak about mitigating the risk about deepfakes. And of course – of course – we have to criminalise the sharing of deepfake videos of Taylor Swift. We have to oblige creators of deepfake videos to put a label there. But the only way to tackle real – real – threats to our democracy and security is to put obligations on platfor…

13

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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European Defence investment programme (EDIP) (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, representative of the Council, we’ve just learned the far left doesn’t want to dedicate any money to defence, but Russia, dear colleagues from the left, is dedicating 40% of its GDP to a malicious war in Europe. Let’s not fool ourselves that Putin will stop in Europe – Putin is preparing for a full-scale war with NATO. China, meanwhile, has spent each year a percenta…

12

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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European Economic Security Strategy (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioners, China is preparing for a war in Asia, and as soon as President XI is optimistic enough that he will succeed with little costs, the Middle Empire will strike. And in such a scenario, Europe will look at how to use its economic power, its leverage, similar to how we pressured Russia after it started its war here in Europe. But I doubt, dear colleagues, I very much d…

12

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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Defence of democracy package (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioners, colleagues, I have the tradition of reviewing voting results after this House votes on things the Chinese Communist Party really dislikes, and the Greek Social Democrats tend to consistently abstain or vote against China-critical texts. The underpinning problem is, of course, Greece’s critical port of Piraeus now being China-owned. This is foreign interference …

20

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Framework of measures for strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology products manufacturing ecosystem (Net Zero Industry Act) (debate)

Madam President, at the basis of many technologies reducing carbon emissions, we find semiconductors, chips. Better, faster chips, better system designs – these are often the main drivers of reducing CO2 emissions. But true industrial policy, dear colleagues, is therefore bringing together industries and technologies downstream, and the Net-Zero Industry Act has the unique opportunity to bring the…

3

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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Question Time with Commissioners – EU-China trade relations

I was glad that you raised the issue of espionage and also cyber security in China and Beijing. Well, last week an EU institution, ETSI, which sets technological standards here in Europe, here in France, said very quietly, very silently, it was hacked. It didn’t say anything about criminal intent, ransomware intent. It was very quiet on that. Together with the cyber security agency of France, ANSE…

12

Sep

2023

EN Speech

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Iran: one year after the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini (debate)

Mr President, High Representative, colleagues, this week marks one year since the brave Mahsa Amini was shamefully beaten to death by the Islamic Morality Police in Tehran. We honour Amini, her relatives and friends today and we honour the brave Iranian people because they stood up against their oppressors. In this same week, we also express our continuous disapproval of the Iranian regime, not ju…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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European Chips Act (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, before I came to this Parliament, by profession I investigated Chinese hackers and the Chinese appetite to steal from our European semi-conductor industry was just appalling. It amounted to nothing less than pure theft of our industrial earning power and competitiveness. But with today’s vote on the European Chips Act, we contribute to reverse this trend. After …

14

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, it makes perfect sense that some EU Member States use commercial spyware to fulfil legitimate law enforcement requirements. That’s not the problem. The real problem, of course, is, like the rapporteur said, that some EU Member States use this spyware to discredit the democratic opposition and kill democracy in Europe. Poland, Hungary, Greece – shame on them. And I …

1

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, in the same week that this House rings the alarm bells on malign foreign interference, disinformation, growing hatred and the declining trust in our democracies, often enabled by social media, in that same week, the CEO of Twitter decides to abandon the EU’s code of practice directed to counter disinformation and malign interference. And earlier, the CEO …

8

May

2023

EN Speech

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Establishing the Act in support of ammunition production (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, concrete and credible plans for producing 1 million shells for Ukraine within 12 months is just spot on and much appreciated. And I would like to thank the competent commitment of this Commission and especially Commissioner Breton, but also Commissioner Borrell in particular, dedicated to the faith of defence in Europe. But with 5 000 shells, dear Commissioner, fir…

1

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Transparency and targeting of political advertising (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, colleagues, many voters in modern democracies base their choice on who to cast their vote for on what they read online on social media. I can hardly think of a bigger threat to our democracies than this because if Twitter, for example, is that town square Mr Musk is talking about, then should it be allowed for just one or two political parties to give speeches o…

19

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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The Global Gateway Initiative (debate)

Mr President, as much as anyone might criticise the EU’s Global Gateway, the strategy and the concept are just brilliant. I mean, sustainable, trusted connections that bring free trade prosperity to all, and delivering all of that to the benefit of the EU’s geopolitical goals. Well done! Sure, there has been heavy, heavy criticism from the European Court of Auditors, which has to be taken extremel…

17

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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EU response to the protests and executions in Iran (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has conducted many illegal hostages and killings, of course, in Iran, but increasingly on European soil. Members of the IRGC nonetheless send their children to study here in Europe. Social media platforms in Europe are being flooded with outrageous IRGC propaganda. And the IRGC holds financial assets here across this …