What Manuela spoke about.

18

Jun

2026

DE Speech

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International Day of Play: promoting children’s right to play (debate)

Mr President! Bad enough that in 2026 we even need to remember that children should play. The fact that we have to specifically emphasise this right shows how far we have moved away from a truly child-friendly society – sad but true – also in Europe. Playing is not a pastime. Play is a child's right and the foundation of a healthy childhood. Where children play, friendships grow, where creativity,…

18

Jun

2026

DE Speech

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Joint Declaration on ‘Culture for Europe - Europe for Culture’ (debate)

30

Apr

2026

DE Answer

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Cali fund – follow up from the COP16 UN Convention on Biodiversity (debate)

Thank you very much for this question. As I have just said in detail in my speech, those who benefit from this fund should clearly also pay into this fund. I find it really very adventurous that when we talk here about something as important as protecting our biodiversity, which is claimed here in this plenary that Germany needs the AfD. This is a bit of a contempt for this House. But thank you fo…

30

Apr

2026

DE Speech

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Cali fund – follow up from the COP16 UN Convention on Biodiversity (debate)

Madam President, Without a functioning Cali fund for digital sequence information, or DSI for short, biodiversity conservation remains only a promise. However, biodiversity is the basis for everything, for our future and also for our economy. Key industries such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture and biotechnology are directly dependent on it. They all use genetic resources. They all benefit from fun…

11

Feb

2026

DE Speech

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International Day of Education, fighting inequalities in access to education (debate)

Madam President, Education determines the future – the future of each individual and the future of Europe. Therefore, education must become the top priority of the EU and its Member States, as important as competitiveness, because without education there is no competitiveness. Innovation, skills, resilience – it all starts in the classroom. At the same time, we are witnessing a technological revol…

23

Oct

2025

DE Speech

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Discontinuing seasonal time change (debate)

Madam President, And the marmot salutes forever if we change the time twice a year. And the marmot salutes forever when everyone gets upset about it again. And yet nothing happens. The European Parliament's decision has been on the table for six years. For more than six years we have known: The benefit is minimal, the damage noticeable. But no one knows – and my colleague, who has just spoken, doe…

23

Oct

2025

DE Speech

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Audiovisual Media Services Directive obligations in the transatlantic dialogue (debate)

Madam President, Cultural policy is non-negotiable, and neither is our right to protect it. When we were in the U.S. with the Committee on Culture and Education, many cultural professionals envied our media laws to encourage Europe's courage to promote diversity instead of sacrificing it to the market. The AVMSD guarantees access to European works, protects our languages, our media pluralism and o…

22

Oct

2025

DE Speech

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Key objectives for the CITES COP20 meeting in Uzbekistan (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen! The CITES COP-20 Conference on International Species Protection is just as important as COP30 on Climate Action. Climate protection and species protection are inextricably linked. Without healthy ecosystems, there is no stable climate and without biodiversity, there is no future. The CITES Convention, which turns 50 this year, is our most…

8

Oct

2025

DE Speech

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Promoting EU digital rules: protecting European sovereignty (debate)

Madam President, You don't have to talk about it for long: The concentration of power and data in the hands of fewer tech companies from the US and China is weakening Europe. It threatens and manipulates democratic discourse through algorithms and disinformation. It is therefore high time to create competitive European alternatives. These include cloud services, AI systems, digital infrastructures…

11

Sep

2025

DE Speech

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A new vision for the European Universities alliances (debate)

Mr President! Yesterday, in her State of the Union address, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke about the need for Europe to take action where others are retreating, citing science as an example. She is one of the valuable global goods – how right she is about it. That is why it is right and important that we address the European University Alliances, because they can make an important…

8

May

2025

DE Speech

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EU action on treating and preventing diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular neurological diseases and measles (debate)

Madam President, Cancer and cardiovascular diseases are among the health threats of our time. Good is: Many of these diseases are preventable. A central lever here is healthy nutrition. Healthy eating should not be a luxury. If we are serious about precautionary measures, then we must make healthy food cheaper, for example by reducing VAT on fruit and vegetables. At the same time, we need to tackl…

2

Apr

2025

DE Speech

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Outcome of the recent COP16 biodiversity negotiations in Rome (debate)

Mr President! The failure of the 16th. The COP16 conference in Colombia was dramatic given that it is estimated that up to 150 species die every day around the world. Biodiversity is the foundation on which our health, our food and our security stand. In addition, more than half of economic output on a global scale depends on functioning ecosystems. So this is not about a bit of nature conservatio…

23

Jan

2025

DE Speech

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Combating Desertification: 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention (debate)

Mr President! Desertification is one of the most pressing problems of our time – not only in Africa or Asia, but also in Europe. Thirteen EU countries in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe are already affected. Soil dehydration is also progressing in other parts of Europe. In the future, deserts could also be created here. That there is an urgent need for action, this awareness was not sufficien…

22

Jan

2025

DE Speech

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Failure of the negotiations in Busan for a UN plastic treaty and the urgent need to tackle plastic pollution at international and Union level (debate)

Madam President, Global plastic pollution requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond just waste management. We have to start with the far too high production of plastic. 400 million tons are produced each year. We need a binding UN treaty that takes into account the entire cycle of plastics, from production to disposal. Plastic production is projected to triple by 2060. What to do now? Pro…

28

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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Strengthening children’s rights in the EU - 35th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (debate)

Mr President! Children in Europe and worldwide are still too much affected by poverty, discrimination, digital risks, psychological distress or lack of access to education. Progress is far from enough. 20 million children in the EU are growing up in poverty. Mental stress, such as anxiety and depression, continues to increase in Europe, exacerbated by social pressure and the constant presence of d…

25

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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Outcome of the UN Biodiversity Conference 2024 in Cali, Colombia (COP16) (debate)

Madam President, Climate change is about how humanity survives on Earth. Species protection is about whether it can do it at all. That's why the motto of the 16th World Nature Conference "Peace with Nature". However, it should be noted that: There is currently a war against nature. The environment and species are perishing at a breathtaking pace. We are also internationally far from achieving the …

24

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Abuse of new technologies to manipulate and radicalise young people through hate speech and antidemocratic discourse (debate)

Madam President, We are talking about a new addiction: Recommendation algorithms have most young people firmly under control on social media. This means: If you watch a video, you get unsolicited more and more, sometimes more extreme content. Young people often have no choice, they can no longer get away from it. Not only does the risk of addiction increase, hate speech and hate speech can also ra…

23

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Tackling the steel crisis: boosting competitive and sustainable European steel and maintaining quality jobs (debate)

Madam President, No other industry, such as the steel industry, can be so well anchored to the conversion to climate-neutral production methods, which is urgently needed, but this industry is under great pressure. Especially the massive cheap imports from third countries such as China and India are adding enormously to our steel industry. That is why we also need more European awareness. In order …

22

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Question Time with Commissioners – Situation of animal health in Europe: how to prevent and prepare for future sanitary crises in agriculture

Madam President, Prevention is better than cure – this has never been more true than during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have already heard a lot here, but I would still like to ask again. Zoonoses: These are not only available on markets in China, but we also have them in Europe in a number of fur animal farms. A recent report shows that the housing conditions of fur animals in general pose a partic…

14

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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Promised revision of the EU animal welfare legislation and the animal welfare-related European citizens’ initiatives (debate)

Madam President, Article 13 of Union law states: The EU must take full account of the welfare of animals as sentient beings. Animals are not products. For the most part, however, they are treated in this way in Europe. Europeans are resisting how many successful European citizens' initiatives and a lot of local volunteering are showing. The European Commission has failed to reach out to millions o…

27

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Geographical Indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear Commission! Like no other country, the European Union is at the forefront of quality products. No one can fool us about the richness and diversity of our regional food. Therefore, it is right and important to protect the quality products that make up our European, regional, cultural heritage and to highlight their unique characteristics associated with thei…

26

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Detergents and surfactants (debate)

Mr President! Thank you very much for what you have said to your colleagues and thank you very much for what Commissioner Breton has said and for the willingness to continue working together on this file in the trilogue negotiations. I would like to stress that this revision represents a significant improvement of the Commission proposal. It will protect the health of our citizens and facilitate t…

26

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Detergents and surfactants (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner Breton, ladies and gentlemen! Today we are talking about a report which concerns every one of us in this House, but also every European on a daily basis. It is about detergents and detergents, also called detergents. The production of detergents secures jobs in Europe and provides us consumers with high-quality products. Many companies have already shown that there is a …

6

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Calling on the Council to take all necessary steps to reach an agreement on the European cross-border mechanism file and open negotiations with Parliament (debate)

Madam President, I come from the beautiful Saarland, which is a real border region, as it borders France and Luxembourg, among others. This is where Europe is lived every day. This shows how well European cooperation and integration can – or cannot – work. Often it still takes far too long, for example, to create cross-border rail and bus connections or to realize better cooperation in the field o…

6

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

Madam President, It is a real scandal how this reform on new genetic engineering should be pushed through in an urgent procedure, without sufficient referral. It took Parliament about a year and a half to pass the Nature Restoration Act. Now, in just a few months, nature is being destroyed. The legislative proposal is neither evidence-based nor science-based; He's purely corporate-controlled. With…