What Claude spoke about.

18

Oct

2022

FR Speech

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Keep the bills down: social and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and the introduction of a windfall tax (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome the opportunity we have to call once again for the taxation of super-profits. Nevertheless, the situation is far from satisfactory. On the one hand, millions of citizens are facing extreme price increases in vital sectors such as energy and food; on the other hand, the insolent health of the major leading groups in the sector, which are o…

6

Jul

2022

FR Speech

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Taxing windfall profits of energy companies (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, tens of millions of people in Europe are seeing their salaries stagnate and the price of their groceries skyrocket, without being able to act. At the same time, there are companies like Cargill, this multinational wheat company, which has been thriving since the beginning of the crisis: almost 5 billion profits since last year, solely due to their …

5

Jul

2022

FR Speech

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Objection pursuant to Rule 111(3): Amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Taxonomy Disclosures Delegated Act (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the war in Ukraine started 130 days ago, and since then we have bought Mr Putin almost EUR 17 billion in gas and oil. We are in the midst of a climate emergency, facing an unprecedented energy crisis, but also an explosion in the cost of living. And some in this Chamber would like to see gas and nuclear, with its waste, repainted green for more tha…

23

Jun

2022

FR Speech

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National vetoes to undermine the global tax deal (debate)

Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, what a wonderful story this European taxation is! One day, Poland opposes to negotiate its recovery plan; the next day, Hungary – and it is not clear why. In the meantime, hundreds of multinationals are escaping taxation, in defiance of Europeans and in defiance of an agreement validated by 136 states within the framework of the OECD. Mr Macron told us in Janu…

6

Jun

2022

FR Speech

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Question Time (Commission) Reducing the use of pesticides and strengthening consumer protection

Commissioner, I would like to take up my second question: Why is the Commission not considering the presence of pesticide residues in food products on food labelling? I am talking about the legal residues allowed; I am not talking about exceeding standards. I'm talking about all the residues: When there are residues, why do they not appear on food labelling?…

6

Jun

2022

FR Speech

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Question Time (Commission) Reducing the use of pesticides and strengthening consumer protection

Madam President, Commissioner, the Commission plans to reduce the use of pesticides, including the most hazardous ones, by 50% by 2030, and I welcome that. But it is also responsible for ensuring the correct application of Regulation 1107 of 2009 on the placing of pesticides on the market and, above all, of the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union of October 2019 which requires t…

18

May

2022

FR Speech

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Minimum level of taxation for multinational groups (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this is a great day for European taxation, because we, the representatives of European citizens, are sealing the first step towards the gradual loss of interest in tax havens. So, of course, I will not hide it from you, I would have liked a slightly higher rate that would have allowed for a greater reallocation of resources. I would also have li…

4

May

2022

FR Speech

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Competition policy – annual report 2021 (debate)

Mr President, Mrs Vestager, ladies and gentlemen, year after year this report on competition hollows out the Union's renunciations on vital issues. What is absent is almost more important than what is found there. In this report, we look in vain for some essential points, when some European states allow billions of state aid paid to multinationals in the context of the COVID crisis to flow to tax …

2

May

2022

FR Speech

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EU action plan for organic agriculture (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, our current farming model is a triple disaster: for peasant employment, biodiversity and public health. The new CAP is an accelerator of this ongoing tragedy. The war in Ukraine, on the other hand, reminds us of the absolute urgency of leaving an agricultural model under infusion of hydrocarbons for its fertilisers and pesticides. This week's vo…

4

Apr

2022

FR Speech

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Urgent need to adopt the minimum tax directive (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today, when it comes to taxation, we live in a Union and above all in a world where multinationals have more rights than individuals and citizens. It's time to get back to that. Taxes paid by our citizens finance public goods and services. Multinationals use them and, in return, wipe their feet on the principle of tax consent. Let's end it and r…

23

Mar

2022

FR Speech

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MFF 2021-2027: fight against oligarch structures, protection of EU funds from fraud and conflict of interest (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, thank you to those who are still here at 11 p.m. We keep repeating that the European budget is already too low, so there is no question of leaving it at the mercy of predators. As in Russia, Europe has its oligarchs, and as in Russia, they thrive in the flaws of the system. They threaten our democracy by grabbing a share of our common resources.…

9

Mar

2022

FR Speech

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Fair and simple taxation supporting the recovery strategy (continuation of debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure for me today to speak on this report in general and on the Commission's plan for fair and simplified taxation. Fair is a strong and important word. But fair taxation for whom? For the weakest? For SMEs? For social justice? Who are we defending in this chamber? What model should we build for a resilient Europe, better protected from…

15

Feb

2022

FR Speech

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Tackling non-tariff and non-tax barriers in the single market (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the internal market is an instrument that must enable us to achieve our public policy objectives. Achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal or the digital transition requires a single market that works with rules that serve those objectives. If non-tariff barriers are an important topic, beware: economic freedoms shall in no way prevail o…

14

Feb

2022

FR Speech

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European Central Bank – annual report 2021 (continuation of debate)

Commissioner, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the ECB’s monetary policy has enabled the Member States to increase their budgetary capacity tenfold, which, moreover, is not a bad thing. But, unfortunately, this has been little used in investments, yet so necessary for our future. Today, I am thinking in particular of the increase in energy prices, which undoubtedly leads to an increase in co…

14

Dec

2021

FR Speech

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Outcome of Global Summit Nutrition for Growth (Japan, 7-8 December) and increased food insecurity in developing countries (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 800 million people in the world are not hungry and two billion are malnourished. The world’s agriculture is 30 billion peasants with tractors and chemicals, 300 billion peasants with horses and manure and 1.2 billion with hoes. There are 1.4 billion hectares of cultivable land on the planet, of which 12% are in the European Union. Who can believe, …

20

Oct

2021

FR Speech

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Increased efforts to fight money laundering (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, tell me, Commissioner, where exactly is the fight against money laundering in the European Union? Because, believe me, from this desk, she seems completely at a standstill. Scandals follow one another. The outraged interpellations resonate in this Chamber like an endless echo and, above all, without any concrete result. Worse, new steps in inaction are being taken. Malt…

19

Oct

2021

FR Speech

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Climate, Energy and Environmental State aid guidelines (“CEEAG”) (debate)

Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, how can we put our public policies at the service of the ecological transition and the social emergency at the same time? Beyond our energy model, the current spike in gas and energy prices also threatens the viability of our businesses and the most precarious living conditions. Everyone here, I imagine, is calling for the clean energy tr…

18

Oct

2021

FR Speech

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Farm to Fork Strategy (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, why are chemical and agricultural technology vendors standing up against the European Farm to Fork Strategy? Because they feel that the wind is turning and they are afraid. A new paradigm, responding to citizens’ expectations, is emerging. They are therefore afraid of being dispossessed of a milk cow called the CAP. Fear of losing a significant …

6

Oct

2021

FR Speech

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Pandora Papers: implications on the efforts to combat money laundering, tax evasion and avoidance (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, Council representative, ladies and gentlemen, tax evasion threatens the foundations of our democracies and the Pandora Papers will leave lasting traces in the European Parliament. I note the absence of comments on this case from certain political groups, from the extreme right to the liberals, united as never before to avoid offending the rich caught in the act of ch…

15

Sep

2021

FR Speech

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Reversing the negative social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Madam, thank you for your report. Colleagues, whenever we are faced with a crisis, we are also reminded of this uncomfortable truth: the impact of the crisis is extremely uneven. This is also the case with this pandemic we are going through, where lockdown measures have led to economic recession, mass unemployment, deteriorating working conditions, rising inequalities a…

15

Sep

2021

FR Speech

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EU contribution to transforming global food systems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen: "Sovereignty in our country, charity in the south". This is, in short, the European strategy on the subject of food. Sovereignty is the basis for a resilient society. Food autonomy is the minimum requirement to which all countries around the world should be entitled. Similarly, eradicating hunger in the world by 2030, as the UN does, is not an opti…