What Manuela spoke about.

21

Nov

2023

DE Speech

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Packaging and packaging waste (debate)

Mr President! Why are we even discussing a new law on packaging and its waste, even though there was a directive on this five years ago? The answer is simple: The amount of packaging in the EU is constantly increasing. Our packaging waste has reached a record level. A new revision is therefore necessary. It is now our responsibility to find a solution that is good for people and nature. In particu…

19

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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European Citizens' Initiative 'Fur Free Europe' (debate)

Madam President, Animals feel pain, fear and joy – similar to us humans. In the EU Treaty, they are rightly described as sentient beings. Despite this knowledge, animals have to suffer millions of times every day. Fur animals spend their short, agonizing lives imprisoned in small barren cages. Why? Their suffering is also unnecessary! We don't need furs. There are enough alternatives. The attitude…

4

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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The proposed extension of glyphosate in the EU (debate)

Madam President, Let's say we have a pesticide that kills any plant that hasn't been genetically modified to survive use. Let us further assume that this pesticide is harmful to health and contributes significantly to the extinction of species. In addition, it is the best-selling pesticide and up to 4,000 tonnes of it are sprayed annually in Germany alone. This pesticide massively pollutes groundw…

15

Jun

2023

DE Speech

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The water crisis in Europe (debate)

Madam President, Drinking water is becoming increasingly scarce. Due to climate change, the situation in many parts of Europe was already dramatic in winter - resulting in crop failures in Spain, drinking water shortages in the south of France, deaths due to torrential rains after a winter drought in Italy. In Germany, districts are already announcing water savings. We must counteract this. We kno…

19

Apr

2023

DE Speech

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Keeping people healthy, water drinkable and soil liveable: getting rid of forever pollutants and strengthening EU chemical legislation now (topical debate)

Madam President, Highly toxic perpetual chemicals such as PFAS can be found all over Europe and worldwide. Particularly shocking: It is now quite natural to use them in our everyday products, such as rain-repellent jackets and even worse in food contact materials such as paper straws, to make them waterproof. So we come into contact with them every day, our children are exposed to them every day. …

17

Apr

2023

DE Speech

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Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Social Climate Fund - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation (debate)

Mr President! I would also like to thank my colleagues, especially those with whom I have worked on the CBAM. Fit for 55 is the largest legislative package on climate neutrality in the world. But what role does the first introduction of CBAM play? The previous ETS scheme is based on a free allocation of emission allowances. We've been trying it out for 17 years and we've found that CO2 emissions h…

16

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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European Citizens’ Initiative "Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment" (debate)

Mr President! The success of this European Citizens' Initiative to save bees and farmers is a loud wake-up call to politicians and society, which is doing too little to protect our biodiversity and our food. This European Citizens' Initiative clearly shows that more and more people across Europe no longer want to accept the fact that we are cutting the branch on which we are sitting with the curre…

13

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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Renewable Energy, Energy Performance of Buildings and Energy Efficiency Directives: amendments (REPowerEU) (continuation of debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! The war in Ukraine has finally made it clear to many that we need to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy. This regulation wants to support this, and that is good and important. However, I am critical of some aspects of this regulation. In addition to the climate crisis, we must not forget that we also have a biodiversity crisis, as the UN COP15 currently tak…

7

Jun

2022

DE Speech

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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))

Madam President, Fit for 55 is the largest legislative package on climate neutrality – globally and by far. Higher emission reduction targets require a revision of existing climate policy instruments. The free allocation of emission allowances under the ETS system ultimately failed the practical test. We've been trying it out for 17 years and we've found that CO2 emissions haven't decreased to the…

2

May

2022

DE Speech

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Amending Annexes IV and V to Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants (debate)

Madam President, Within the framework of the European Union, the EU has two major objectives: the resource-efficient circular economy on the one hand and being free of pollutants on the other. Both are key goals for our society. However, in the case of persistent organic substances, POPs for short, they do not fit together, because POPs are among the most dangerous and harmful chemicals ever, both…

2

May

2022

DE Speech

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Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (debate)

Mr President! Democracy is hotly debated again. In Ukraine, not only freedom, but also democracy is defended. Why don't we defend democracy here in the European Parliament? Democracy means participation. Stable democracy means participation of all. Our society has become more diverse. Dealing with diversity has become a hallmark of a stable democracy. According to the Federal Constitutional Court,…

7

Apr

2022

DE Speech

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Right to repair (debate)

Madam President, Our grandparents were used to having a lot of fun with a product, as they could use it for a long time. Now we live in a disposable society. This is due in particular to the obsolescence of products, i.e. the artificial shortening of the service life, as well as the non-reparability of these products. It is high time that the resource-intensive linear economic model is a thing of …

10

Mar

2022

DE Speech

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The need for an ambitious EU Strategy for sustainable textiles (debate)

Madam President, Fashionable clothes are really great. Who can deny this? As with so many things: If you look behind the scenes, you can see that our fast fashion has a too high price. The production is carried out under poor, sometimes inhumane working conditions, it is very polluting to the environment, as the high consumption of raw materials, energy and water as well as water pollution and the…

9

Mar

2022

DE Speech

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Batteries and waste batteries (debate)

Madam President, Batteries are an indispensable part of our daily life, but batteries are now more than just our everyday home products. Demand for batteries will rise rapidly in the coming years, especially for electric vehicles. Therefore, it was right and important to have a legislative proposal that not only deals with used batteries and only certain categories of batteries, but looks at the e…

15

Feb

2022

DE Speech

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Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer(debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, The best way to fight cancer is not to let it develop in the first place. That is why my group and I have focused heavily on prevention. I was particularly concerned about the protection of our children, and I am pleased that this is reflected throughout the report. Children are becoming more and more obese, which can lead to cancer in o…

14

Feb

2022

DE Speech

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Implementation report on on-farm animal welfare (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, The report on the welfare of farm animals has absolutely nothing to do with the protection of these animals. I have to say it as hard as it is. This report was supposed to update the extremely outdated rules for the protection of farm animals. In this, the report fails. He lacks ambition, he is driven by the interests of the animal husba…

20

Jan

2022

DE Speech

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Protection of animals during transport - Protection of animals during transport (Recommendation) (debate)

Madam President, It has already happened to all of us: We see an animal transport, look inside and suffer with it. Animal transport, especially long-distance transport, causes extreme animal suffering – everyone knows this and the vast majority of citizens want to put an end to it. And the time has come to do so. For 18 months, the Special Committee has had experts report on the torment these anim…

16

Dec

2021

DE Speech

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An EU ban on the use of wild animals in circuses (debate)

Madam President, ‘Tigers in the circus – but that's unnatural, the poor animals’, that's what I heard a ten-year-old girl say who was in the circus. Why is this clear to children and not to many adults? Times are changing, because children are already questioning the familiar more and more. But it's not just her. One million signatures were handed over to the Commission for a ban on animal husband…

4

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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The role of development policy in the response to biodiversity loss in developing countries, in the context of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. COVID-19 is a turning point in our way of life worldwide. As we are still in the midst of the pandemic, we can and must now set the course for a sustainable and future-oriented view. Everyone knows now that we have to take care of climate protection. But that this must go hand in hand with the preservation of biodiversity, unfortunately not. It is …