What Petar spoke about.

5 Oct

2022

BG Speech

The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, do you know what the greatest benefit of our membership of the European Union is for Bulgarians? This is the right of free movement, and the freedom to cross the continent without visas for us, the people who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, is perhaps the most visible and valuable asset of our membership of the European Union. However, this freedom for Bul…

7 Jul

2022

EN Speech

Sustainable aviation fuels (ReFuelEU Aviation Initiative) (debate)

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Mr President, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) can reduce the life-cycle carbon footprint of aviation fuel up to 80%, but it currently makes up less than 0.1% of total aviation fuel consumption. By adopting this report, we will substantially increase the amount of SAF produced and uplifted, leading to aviation in the EU using at least 85% clean fuels by 2050. We will also increase the number of syn…

7 Jul

2022

BG Speech

Recent heat wave and drought in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, just a few days ago, nine people died after a glacier collapsed in the Italian Alps. Record high temperatures have led to droughts unseen for centuries. In Sicily, thermometers showed 57°C, in some areas of Italy and France there is a water regime, and only in the last 24 hours in Greece there have been fifty-two forest fires. And what else needs to happen to realize th…

6 Jul

2022

BG Speech

Facilitating export of Ukrainian agricultural products: key for Ukrainian economy and global food security (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, Russia's war has led to record high food prices, and the ever-increasing price of fertilisers and energy, as well as Russia's internal export ban on cereals, is jeopardising the livelihoods of tens of millions of people, especially in North African countries that rely on wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine. And yes, Europe must counteract by all means the weaponisa…

7 Jun

2022

EN Speech

Binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States (Effort Sharing Regulation) - Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) - CO2 emission standards for cars and vans (joint debate – Fit for 55 (part 2))

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Mr President, Commissioner, the greenhouse gas emissions from road transport have significantly increased since 1990, and 70% of those emissions are coming from cars and vans. With Fit for 55 we have to show how the transport sector will reduce these emissions. Therefore we need to strengthen CO2 emission targets. Some of you may begin to debate if the market is ready. However, whether the market …

7 Jun

2022

BG Speech

Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Social Climate Fund - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation - Notification under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) (joint debate – Fit for 55 (part 1))

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Madam President, Commissioner, tomorrow we are about to have perhaps the most important vote in this mandate. The most important vote on how we will implement the transformation of the European economy so that we achieve the climate goals set. But while we are talking about climate neutrality and reducing emissions, many of the poorest citizens of the Member States are asking themselves whether th…

3 May

2022

EN Speech

Impact of Russian illegal war of aggression against Ukraine on the EU transport and tourism sectors (debate)

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Mr President, in today’s unprecedented crisis, transport is a strategic tool for the EU to provide solidarity and support to Ukraine and its suffering people, in terms of logistics, humanitarian aid and refugees’ evacuation and mobility. Moreover, the rising fuel prices following the pandemic have been further exacerbated by the economic sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation. Higher prices f…

6 Apr

2022

EN Speech

The Schengen evaluation mechanism (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, one of the biggest achievements of EU integration and one of the most valued by EU citizens, is the free movement within the Schengen Area. However, over the last years, the Schengen Area has been under a lot of pressure: the increased arrival of migrants and asylum seekers, terrorist attacks, the epidemic, and the continuation by several Member States to prolong intern…

8 Mar

2022

BG Speech

The deterioration of the situation of refugees as a consequence of the Russian aggression against Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, a great feat has been made by the European citizens of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and not only by those who share a border with Ukraine, but also by my country, Bulgaria, which also hosts 40,000 people. Two million people in 12 days sheltered, fed, clothed. And this is an example of great, great solidarity. Although the best help for refugees is to stop the war,…

16 Feb

2022

EN Speech

Charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures (debate)

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Mr President, first I would like to congratulate my colleague Mr Ferrandino for being so patient, because after almost 4 years of complicated negotiations, we are at the verge of adopting the EU road-charging legislative framework, and this framework is one of the main instruments and turning points in road transport decarbonisation. I cannot agree with Ms Thaler, because we used to have 27 differ…

16 Feb

2022

BG Speech

Harmonised EU approach to travel measures (debate)

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Mr President, although we have been living in a pandemic for two years now, there are still many uncertainties. We are witnessing almost continuous changes in travel measures, and the nature of the pandemic is such that by the time travel bans are in place, the virus has already spread and the effect of the restrictions is minimal and the economic and social cost too high. The Commission and the M…

15 Dec

2021

EN Speech

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 16-17 December 2021 - The EU's response to the global resurgence of Covid-19 and the new emerging Covid variants (debate)

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Mr President, it’s been two years since COVID—19 was discovered and if there is one single lesson that we should all have learned, it is that coordination is everything. We need coordination among us, as no country can handle this pandemic alone. Some countries were hit at the beginning and others later on, but we all faced it. When we hear that healthcare is strictly a national competence, let us…

24 Nov

2021

BG Speech

Outcome of the COP26 in Glasgow (debate)

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Mr President, Vice-President, Glasgow will go down in history as the first meeting to openly talk about the harm of fossil fuels and that they should no longer be subsidised. More than 100 countries, national governments, cities, states and major automotive companies have signed the declaration on zero-emission cars and vans. And India, China and Russia, the biggest polluters, have pledged to go d…

21 Oct

2021

BG Speech

The outcome of the Western Balkans summit (continuation of debate)

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(beginning of speech not heard) ... to be decided. But before we talk about the problems, I'll tell you where there are no problems. There are no problems in the language or identity of North Macedonia, this issue is regulated in the 2018 Neighbourhood Treaty. There are problems in our common history, in discrimination, in human rights, in the use of hate speech. To understand me, I'll just say: o…

20 Oct

2021

BG Speech

UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the UK (COP26) (debate)

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Mr President, I read somewhere that climate change is the biggest crisis multiplier: raising the arrow of the thermometer leads not only to an increase in natural cataclysms, but also to inequality, more emigration, political instability. It is clear that the European Union must lead by example not only with its climate neutrality objectives, but also with the bearable social cost of meeting them.…

6 Oct

2021

BG Speech

European solutions to the rise of energy prices for businesses and consumers: the role of energy efficiency and renewable energy and the need to tackle energy poverty (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, flying energy prices have shocked businesses and made many families wonder if they will be able to pay their bills this winter. This is about to turn them into energy slaves, and the European Union cannot guarantee its citizens one of the most basic and important public services at an affordable price. And this applies most strongly to my country, Bulgari…

5 Oct

2021

BG Speech

Assessing the Union’s measures for the EU tourism sector as the end of the Summer season nears (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, the subject of tourism is extremely important for the European Union because it accounts for over 10% of the Union's gross domestic product and is a major source of revenue for almost every Member State, and the damage that the tourism sector has suffered in the face of the pandemic is unprecedented in nature and size and cannot yet be compensated for. Th…

4 Oct

2021

EN Speech

Artificial intelligence in criminal law and its use by the police and judicial authorities in criminal matters (debate)

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Mr President, I am also happy with this debate, because we agree on two things: the benefits of AI in law enforcement on one hand, and, of course, every single colleague here mentioned human rights, fundamental rights. Well, of course, there are divisions. There are definitely two groups. The first one, to which I belong, says that we keep fundamental rights by not letting the use of the unreliabl…

4 Oct

2021

EN Speech

Artificial intelligence in criminal law and its use by the police and judicial authorities in criminal matters (debate)

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Mr President, the EU regulatory framework needs to catch up with the technical developments. The use of AI has been growing exponentially and this brings the question as to what we, as co-legislators, are doing to safeguard the fundamental rights of European citizens. AI is not a product in itself, but it’s a method, it’s a tool, and, as such, it needs to be conditioned to the overarching goal of …

16 Sep

2021

EN Speech

EU transparency in the development, purchase and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines (debate)

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Mr President, the questions raised by the Committee are all very pertinent, and we will be very curious – I’ll be very curious, of course – to hear all the answers to them. Because the requests for more transparency, for access to the full details of vaccine contracts, do not stem from some conspiracy or scepticism. Transparency is vital for public trust. In this age in which disinformation and pr…

16 Sep

2021

EN Speech

United States sanctions and the Rule of law (continuation of debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, these individuals were sanctioned by the US government on grounds of engaging in corruption. And this is a dire testimony for the complete failure of the Bulgarian state in fighting corruption over the last 12 years. And since we are talking about a EU Member State, this failure is also a European one. Even more worrying is the fact that Bulgaria has been under direc…

15 Sep

2021

EN Speech

The Pegasus spyware scandal (debate)

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Madam President, we cannot keep using security and fighting terrorism as a regular excuse for surveillance. Twenty years ago, after 9/11, the whole world was scared and terrified and was in desperate need to feel safe and secure again. But the revelations in the last year, of which the Pegasus scandal is only the most recent one, show us once again the ugly consequences of this. Journalists, NGO a…

14 Sep

2021

BG Speech

Presentation of the Fit for 55 package after the publication of the IPCC report (debate)

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Mr President, Vice-President of the Commission, colleagues, the climate is changing and we need to change in order to be able to mitigate the damage and ensure the survival of our own children. The Fit for 55 proposal marks the start of a radical economic transformation. Economic, because the main culprit for the state of the climate is the market as we know it today, namely overproduction, overco…