What Sara spoke about.

10 Mar

2025

NL Speech

Cutting red tape and simplifying business in the EU: the first Omnibus proposals (debate)

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Mr President, it is an absolute illusion that putting the axe in our sustainability laws will solve the structural problems of our industry. Nevertheless, the Commission now wants to cut into what I consider to be essential protection of our nature and the rights of our workers. Why? Because the Commission believes that this will make companies more competitive. That's absolute nonsense. Deregulat…

12 Feb

2025

EN Speech

Competitiveness Compass (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, an ambitious climate policy. That is really the very best competitiveness strategy we have in the world. To those colleagues on the right that are the die-hard deregulators, I want to say that that is really the key message that I take away from the presentation of the Competitiveness Compass. Because we cannot allow Europe to miss this great opportunity like we have…

11 Feb

2025

EN Speech

Escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, as we speak blood is being shed in eastern Congo. Rebels and Rwandan troops are terrorising innocent communities. There's mass rapes, there's killings, there's hundreds of thousands of people being displaced from their homes. And what fuels this devastating conflict? The very minerals in our smartphones, in our laptops, in the devices we use every day. How can we as Europ…

22 Jan

2025

EN Speech

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)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, the evidence is clear that the world is drowning in plastics. They're everywhere. They're in our oceans, they're in our bodies, and there are even microplastics in our brains. We're simply making too many of them, while we're actually making the problem worse here in Europe by still investing in major plastic factories like the Ineos factory in Antwerp. All that m…

20 Jan

2025

NL Speech

Heat record year 2024 - the need for climate action to fight global warming (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, President Trump just took the oath in Washington. One of the first things he will do is step out of the Paris climate agreement. The agreement must be signed by the CO2-limit as much as possible emissions from each country, and especially from the biggest polluters. Trump's irresponsible behavior has enormous consequences for our environment, for our health and …

18 Dec

2024

NL Speech

Tackling abusive subcontracting and labour market intermediaries (debate)

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Mr President, three years ago a school under construction in Antwerp collapsed and the consequences were terrible. Five dead, nine seriously injured among the workers. It was a dark day for the Belgian construction industry. And those workers came from all over Europe and subcontracted, always by other companies. The victims who could recount it spoke about undeclared work, about unsafe working co…

18 Dec

2024

EN Speech

Restoring the EU’s competitive edge – the need for an impact assessment on the Green Deal policies (topical debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, let me say this very loud and clear – the Green Deal, that's our best strategy to regain competitiveness in the world. And that's not merely just our point of view. That's what all innovative companies and the trade unions tell me every day. That's what the Commission says – thank you, Miss Ribera. That's what all the impact assessments of the Green Deal policies say…

27 Nov

2024

NL Speech

Rise of energy prices and fighting energy poverty (debate)

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Mr President, one in ten Europeans cannot heat their homes this winter. And it is the people who live in cold and draughty homes who are the most victims of those high energy prices. Europe urgently needs to step up the fight against energy poverty. And we need to do that by helping people renovate their homes and by switching to renewable energy, because the cheapest energy is the energy you don'…

24 Oct

2024

NL Speech

Closing the EU skills gap: supporting people in the digital and green transitions to ensure inclusive growth and competitiveness in line with the Draghi report (debate)

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Mr President, when factories in old and polluting industries close, the workers are the first victims. In the past, this was downright chaotic. Workers were ignored and communities were destroyed, as was the case with the coal mines in Belgium. But now it has to be different so that employees become the winners of the transition. There are many new jobs in our market. For example, installers of ch…

23 Oct

2024

EN Speech

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

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Madam President, dear colleagues, last month in this Parliament, we debated about the thousands of European workers at risk of losing their jobs in the car manufacturing industry. Today we're talking about the job cuts hitting the steel workers, for instance, in the Czech Republic, in Poland, in Hungary, all over Europe. So that's why we ask for a clean industrial deal that really unleashes an inv…

21 Oct

2024

NL Speech

A stronger Europe for safer products to better protect consumers and tackle unfair competition: boosting EU oversight in e-commerce and imports (debate)

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Mr President, our market is flooded with cheap junk from Chinese webshops, such as Temu, such as Shein, such as AliExpress. There are millions of packages: T-shirts for two euros, a football for half a euro. These are not durable and anything but safe. As a mother of a toddler, that scares me. After all, a sample shows that eighteen of the nineteen toys on Temu are downright unsafe. These Chinese …

8 Oct

2024

EN Speech

The crisis facing the EU’s automotive industry, potential plant closures and the need to enhance competitiveness and maintain jobs in Europe (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, I am addressing you at a time when thousands of European workers are at risk of losing their jobs, and let me tell you, workers should not be the victims of the poor management decisions that some of our European car producers made, nor should the taxpayers or should the citizens. But here we are. And that's actually exactly what's happening right now in Europe – because …

7 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Signature of acts adopted in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (Rule 81)

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Madam President, I would like to raise a point of order. Tomorrow we are going to have the debate on the current problems in the automotive industry, including the plant closures, and the need to enhance our competitiveness and, of course, maintain jobs in Europe. So we, as the Greens/EFA Group, have requested to add the following words to the title: 'and the tariffs on Chinese EVs'. I think it's …

18 Sep

2024

EN Answer

The devastating floods in Central and Eastern Europe, the loss of lives and the EU’s preparedness to act on such disasters exacerbated by climate change (debate)

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(Start of speech off mic) ... victims and indeed help them. But we need to look at the long term as well. For me, sometimes dams can be the solution, but we also need to look at those natural solutions because that is actually the way to do it more cost‑efficiently and it's a win-win both for the climate and for adaptation. So I don't know the specific case of Poland and the dam there, but I think…

18 Sep

2024

NL Speech

The devastating floods in Central and Eastern Europe, the loss of lives and the EU’s preparedness to act on such disasters exacerbated by climate change (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, houses are flooded, the power goes out and our roads turn into wild rivers. Will this extreme weather due to global warming become the new normal for our citizens? We must never accept the increasing number of deaths and displaced persons. The economic damage is also in the billions. After the deadly floods we have seen in Belgium, it is now Austria, the Czech R…

24 Apr

2024

NL Speech

La Hulpe declaration on the future of social Europe (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, these days there is a very strong focus on competitiveness. And that is important, because it is about our prosperity and about our jobs. But at the same time, let me warn you: You don't build a competitive economy in a social cemetery. In the La Hulpe Declaration, Europe promises social progress to all its citizens and that is urgently needed, because one in fi…

22 Apr

2024

NL Speech

Common rules promoting the repair of goods (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow the consumer will have an incredible victory, because we are finally introducing the right to repair. This is a breakthrough, because it makes the recovery of our smartphones, our washing machines, affordable for everyone. And with that, we are also putting an end to the monopoly of large multinationals such as Samsung, as iPhone. Because they are now f…

14 Mar

2024

EN Speech

Deterioration of living conditions in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, for one out of five Europeans, life has become a series of painful choices. As the cost of living pushes people to the edge. They have to be careful using public transport due to the high ticket prices. They have to choose the cheapest food, or they cancel their health insurance for themselves or for their children. Going on holidays, going to a concert, that’s re…

12 Mar

2024

NL Speech

State of play of the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ‘Never again Rana Plaza’, as it was 11 years ago. In the collapse of that textile factory, more than a thousand textile workers lost their lives. And now there is finally a law ready that will ensure that companies can no longer look away from this kind of abuse. But, as we have already heard today, some Member States have doubts, want to undress and even block …

11 Mar

2024

NL Speech

Energy performance of buildings (recast) (debate)

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Colleagues, one in ten people in our Europe still suffers from cold weather in winter. An energy renovation is the solution for them, but for 40% of Flemings it is unaffordable today, even with the existing premiums. However, it is just for them that those renovations are so important, because every centimeter of insulation immediately means a lower energy bill. We want to ensure that energy renov…

6 Feb

2024

NL Speech

Limit values for lead and its inorganic compounds and diisocyanates (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, workers with high concentrations of lead in the blood are at risk of miscarriages or premature births. The standard for lead in our bodies has not been revised for far too long. That is why we are now lowering that permitted standard by no less than four times. Due to the increasing production of, for example, electric cars and batteries, more workers will be exposed to l…

6 Feb

2024

NL Speech

EU2040 climate target (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are stepping up our climate goals. This is good news for our health, for our environment and for our planet. Because we only come with a fair climate policy that supports vulnerable families. Europe must therefore invest more resources in isolating our homes and fully opt for affordable green energy from us. We must now invest in making our economy and …

16 Jan

2024

NL Speech

Presentation of the programme of activities of the Belgian Presidency (debate)

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. – Mr President, Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, today Belgium has the opportunity to contribute to the agenda of the future Commission. I call on you, Mr De Croo, to be ambitious about this. It is a good thing that you are focusing on the green transition of our industry and you yourself have already said that more European resources are needed for this. I agree with that, because we have …

12 Dec

2023

NL Speech

Parliament’s call for the right to disconnect - three years on (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we Europeans are hard workers, but after a long day at work, no one really wants to sit next to his boss. However, that is the reality for many people today. Whatsapps and other chats ensure an unrelenting message flow between colleagues and with bosses. That is why, three years ago, Parliament called for a law on the right to disconnect for workers. Today, wome…

12 Dec

2023

NL Speech

Framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, the demand for critical raw materials for our windmills, for our electric cars, is exploding. Of course, we desperately need these raw materials for the transition to renewable energy. It is good that Europe is waking up. But let's absolutely avoid a new raw material journey and work smarter. What are we supposed to do? We need to focus on reusing …