What Bart spoke about.

17 Jan

2023

EN Speech

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

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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 …

14 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Defending democracy from foreign interference (debate)

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Mr President, whatever significant progress we make as humanity, our human nature will not change. So for those who say the problem with foreign interference is the poor, bad, moral or ethical judgment of some individuals, I advise them to re—read the Book of Genesis. It was mankind eating the apple, and mankind will continue to be tempted. The real problem is, of course, that a permissive securit…

22 Nov

2022

EN Speech

EU-China relations (debate)

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, High Representative, some see intellectual property theft on an almost industrial scale as the second-oldest profession in the world. What’s new? Instead of the slow drainage of our economic competitiveness, some see unfair competition with state subsidies, non-reciprocal market access just as mere trade issues, technical, instead of a frontal attack on our pros…

22 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Resilience of critical entities (debate)

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President, dear Commissioner, yet another piece of well-crafted, much needed and warmly welcomed legislation protecting Europe’s critical infrastructure is key in making Europe safe and prosperous. Thank you, dear rapporteur. It’s just like the NIS 2, like you mentioned, dear Commissioner, and the foreign direct investment screening, the Democracy Action Plan, but also the Economic Coercion Instru…

10 Nov

2022

EN Speech

A high common level of cybersecurity across the Union (debate)

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, my commitment in the first term to buy drinks for all shadow rapporteurs and the excellent staff has been reinforced by this debate. So you owe me one! I have two comments to make for the Green Party and especially the Pirate Party. They fear that the free and open internet is at stake. Well, let me just mention two things here. First, on my personal – my person…

10 Nov

2022

EN Speech

A high common level of cybersecurity across the Union (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, it is with pride I stand before you here today in Brussels, the result of two years, almost two years, of fierce debates, hundreds of consultations with so many stakeholders from around the world. It resulted in the best cybersecurity legislation this continent has yet seen. And today, we are not just voting on that legislation that significantly e…

9 Nov

2022

EN Speech

EU response to the increasing crack-down on protests in Iran (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, I’m a Member of the European Parliament coming from The Hague, the Netherlands. The Hague welcomes many people from around the world. But unlike any other city in the world, it actively welcomes war criminals by keeping them incarcerated behind bars. And I can tell you, there’s plenty of room in The Hague, I can assure you. In my experience, their …

18 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Question Time (Commission) - Protecting critical infrastructure in the EU against attacks and countering hybrid attacks

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Thank you, Commissioner, for that answer. I believe I agree with you, but it’s much, much more than the NIS2 and the Critical Entities Directive. It’s about placing sensors in our sea; it’s about connecting civilian coastguard capabilities with military attribution capabilities; it’s also about PESCO projects, for example. To make our submarines work for this task. It’s not there yet. And I’d real…

18 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Question Time (Commission) - Protecting critical infrastructure in the EU against attacks and countering hybrid attacks

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Thank you, Commissioner. It was almost three years ago that Russia disconnected itself twice from the internet with success – because it didn’t hurt their economy, it didn’t hurt their society. At the same time, they invested about 3 billion in a new submarine, the Belgorod, which is for deep seawater investigation. It’s not to win a Nobel Prize, I can guarantee. The GUGI institute was also erecte…

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Countering the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda of Putin’s European cronies (topical debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear Ministers, President Putin is not just slowly militarily losing on the battlefield in Europe, he’s also losing the information war against the EU. The EU has put forward, to his disadvantage, the Digital Services Act, the Code of Practice, dozens of initiatives on media literacy, on free journalism, and we’re even tackling the political party financing, which …

5 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Russia’s escalation of its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear Minister, dear colleagues, for the past ten years, Russia has invested significantly in its capability for deep—sea water research, or the sabotage capability, as we know it. For the past three years, Russia deliberately disconnected itself from the internet twice without severe consequences for its own economy or society. In the end of this year, internet cab…

8 Mar

2022

EN Speech

Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, some people would rather see ransomware as a mere technical or criminal problem instead of the Russian state deliberately enabling criminals to weaken Europe. Some would see former Prime Minister Gerhard Schröder working for Gazprom as a private matter, rather than a broader problem, with many top politicians working for authoritarian regimes, which is called ‘elite capture’. Some se…

15 Feb

2022

EN Speech

Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2021 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2021 (debate)

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Madam President, China’s gratitude to Russia’s military manoeuvres against Ukraine must be endless. Xi Jinping knows that if Putin wins on Ukraine, China can finally march on to Taiwan. And Putin, he’s endlessly grateful for all the support he gets from Beijing. China does not criticise, as they both have a common rival: the West – the EU, NATO and its allies. What we see here is nothing less than…

19 Jan

2022

EN Speech

Digital Services Act (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, in five years from now, 90% of our online content will be partially or entirely manipulated, according to academic research. Now that fact should alarm us lawmakers. Deepfakes, for example. Deepfakes may often be funny or creative expressions and could even enrich our online environment, but deepfakes may also gravely impact our security. What if President Putin, for example, decides…

14 Dec

2021

EN Speech

Situation at the Ukrainian border and in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, whether the aggression in Ukraine remains below the threshold of military violence is all up to Vladimir Putin and his cronies. But if he decides to use military force, I say he has to know the cost will be sky-high. Now, the added value of our European Union is that we are extremely well positioned to communicate credibly such sky-high costs, also up front and as a deterrent, and…

24 Nov

2021

EN Speech

State of the Energy Union (debate)

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Mr President, in the cold month of December, we are expecting two heated decisions from the Commission. Firstly, on nuclear. Now here I am not just asking the Commission to take good notice of the rapidly-increasing political support for nuclear energy throughout Europe, I am also asking them to respect science, as reflected in the recent JRC report. Nuclear needs to be added to the taxonomy, both…

5 Oct

2021

EN Speech

State of EU cyber defence capabilities (debate)

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Madam President, some seven years ago all NATO members convened in Wales, and they agreed to spend 2% of their budgets, of GDP, on defence – and rightly so because we did not address the threats at that time, and we still do not. But now, seven years later, new threats have been added to the game: cyber—sabotage, intellectual property theft, disinformation, election interference, economic coercion…

15 Sep

2021

EN Speech

The Pegasus spyware scandal (debate)

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Madam President, whenever there are clear rule of law violations in Europe, we will solve them ourselves, and we are already in the process of doing so. But what Europe cannot use at such a moment is foreign firms and foreign governments de facto enabling the crackdown and breakdown of democracy in Europe. That is exactly what the Israeli Government de facto did by authorising the sale of Pegasus …

14 Sep

2021

EN Speech

Situation in Afghanistan (debate)

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Madam President, some 20 years ago the great Ahmed Shah Masood visited this House, the European Parliament, and he was warmly welcomed. Now Commander Massoud led the heroic fight against both the Communist occupation and later against the Taliban in search of a better future, and he would have fought the Taliban regime today if it wasn’t for Osama bin Laden’s henchmen who killed Masood just two da…

6 Jul

2021

EN Speech

Foreign interference in democratic processes (debate)

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Madam President, what do hybrid threats, new threats, have in common, such as state driven disinformation campaigns, cybersabotage, election interference, economic coercion or large-scale intellectual property theft? What is it they have in common? Well, they are foreign policy objectives of both the Russian and also often the Chinese state. Their calculus of such operations is still low risk, low…