S&D

Thijs REUTEN

MEP · Netherlands

Plenary speeches · European Parliament

Plenary speeches · EU Parliament

What Thijs spoke about.

See how this Member expressed themselves in plenary — and search all their contributions by keyword.

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Speeches updated 8 days ago

All Contributions

156

Since July 1, 2024

Time at the Floor

3.3h

≈ 197 min

Average speech length

1:21 min

≈ 1.3 min · Rank 466/693

Activity

Monthly speeches

Speeches Ranking

Since July 1, 2024

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3	Juan Fernando López Aguilar	SpainES	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)	311
4	João Oliveira	PortugalPT	The Left in the European Parliament (GUE/NGL)	213
5	Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis	LithuaniaLT	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)	204

12 Sep

2023

EN Speech

Relations with Belarus (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, working on this Belarus report has been a sobering experience. The staggering number of political prisoners, including so many of our friends like Ales Bialiatski, Maryia Kalesnikava, Mikola Statkevich and so many others that is rightfully said by EU Commissioner of some of them, we don’t even know where they are. But also more than 2 000 Ukrainian childr…

12 Sep

2023

EN Speech

Iran: one year after the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear High Representative, it is a year since the death of Jina Amini. It should have been the year in which the IRGC was placed on the EU terrorist organisations list. It should have been the year we got an international accountability mechanism. It could also very well have been the year that we stopped being afraid of autocrats supporting Russian aggression, that we started to prot…

14 Jun

2023

NL Speech

Torture and criminal prosecution of Ukrainian minors Tihran Ohannisian and Mykyta Khanhanov by the Russian Federation

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, month sixteen of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine with continuous and deliberate attacks on civilian targets. Pure terror. Putin's rocket rains also hit hospitals, residential towers, bridges, roads, schools. Everyone is affected, including children. Deliberately. We can already be sure of 488 children who have been killed by Russian viol…

14 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Extension of the mandate of the EPPO with regard to the criminal offence of violation of Union restrictive measures (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Commissioner, dear Minister, sometimes I wonder how a Russian oligarch or a human rights violator experiences being under sanctions, under restrictive measures – as a mere nuisance, I guess, and as something to work around. With 27 Member States implementing EU sanctions at their own discretion we facilitate circumvention in a way, and criminals on our sanction list eagerly take a…

14 Jun

2023

NL Speech

Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

Watch

Mr President, journalists in Hungary, lawyers in Poland, a Member of the European Parliament from Greece: a laundry list of testimonies from spyware victims who just do their job and stand up for their ideals. This made an impression on me. Anyone who denies that this is a European problem has not paid attention. Indeed, the web of espionage and spyware trafficking crosses borders and is spreading…

31 May

2023

NL Speech

Breaches of the Rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary and frozen EU funds (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, colleagues, last week I visited the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest. Beautiful building. And yet I was sad. It is a parliament in an autocratic country where opposition politicians cannot even do their job, do not speak in the Orbán-controlled media. And the Hungarian prime minister thinks he can use the EU as an ATM, while curtailing the Hungarians and putti…

10 May

2023

EN Speech

Belarus: the inhumane treatment and hospitalisation of prominent opposition leader Viktar Babaryka

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, again we are speaking about the Lukashenko regime and rightfully so, because we will not stop until this relentless dictator stops throwing his best people in jail and responds for his crimes. Viktar Babaryka was beaten into hospital just because he stood up for what Belarusians long for – freedom. We should have been more decisive back when Lukashenko …

10 May

2023

NL Speech

Externalising asylum applications and making funding to third countries conditional on the implementation of return agreements (topical debate)

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Mr President, Commission, Council, colleagues. Yes, I too, like many colleagues, am ashamed of the fact that even population theories are brought into the debate here. It is a disgrace to this House. But we, the reasonable forces, are with much more. Examining a Danish asylum application in Rwanda: It's so bizarre that I'm not even going to discuss it. We have known for a long time – and you know …

9 May

2023

NL Speech

2022 Report on Kosovo (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, thank you to the rapporteur and colleagues for the good report and also for the necessary updates by the rapporteur, whom I wholeheartedly support. Of course, I am also happy, incredibly happy, that Kosovars will finally be able to travel visa-free from 2024. A long-awaited historic milestone, but the route to it was embarrassing. We have abandoned…

19 Apr

2023

EN Speech

Repression in Russia, in particular the cases of Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny

Watch

Madam President, colleagues, Commissioner, we could dismiss this as just another manifestation of universal truth. Dictators jail democrats they fear. So Putin, a genocidal dictator, jails Vladimir Kara-Murza, a towering lighthouse of democracy for a quarter of a century. Normal procedure: strongly worded statement and move on. But that would so miss the mark. It would ignore Kara-Murza’s humanity…

19 Apr

2023

EN Speech

Universal decriminalization of homosexuality, in light of recent developments in Uganda (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Council, you, I, each of us here – also there – has the duty to stop this global authoritarian onslaught on LGBTQ rights fought so hard to win. These rights to be treated as a human being, to be who you are, to love who you want. Is that too much to ask? For the 387 Ugandan lawmakers who voted for this extremist bill, the answer is clearly ‘yes’. President Museveni: vet…

29 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 23-24 March 2023 (debate)

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Madam President, Commission, Council, colleagues, we have a war criminal to defeat and, following the leadership of the Commission and the High Representative / Vice President in particular, the Council is also increasingly getting the message. It seems that the historic artillery deal gives the brave defenders of Europe’s democracy something to actually defend themselves with. But the truth is, w…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Iran: in particular the poisoning of hundreds of school girls

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, they can’t breathe, President. Imagine the horror: 7000 Iranian girls thinking school is safe and then suddenly gasping for air. We may not yet know who is behind these atrocious attacks, not for certain. But we do know one thing, the Islamic Republic always comes after women first. Khomeini and his IRGC have never hesitated to kill Iranians, especially…

15 Mar

2023

NL Speech

Deaths at sea: a common EU response to save lives and action to ensure safe and legal pathways (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Commissioner, Council and colleagues, Torpekai Amarkhel was an Afghan journalist, a nice, strong woman with a passion for her profession that she has not been able to practice since the Taliban took power. And she only had one option: Flights to Europe. Two weeks ago, she drowned off the coast of Calabria. Torpekai is one of the five relatives who drowned at the same time, one of the…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Implementation report on the Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU - The Windsor Framework (debate)

Watch

Mr President, colleagues, first off, congratulations, Commissioner Šefčovič, for an agreement that fully respects the red lines set out by our Parliament. And I appreciate that Mr Sunak also seems to have broken with the past. For seven long years, his Tory predecessors milked Brexit for cynical political purposes to the very last drop, and floating more illegal ‘Braverplans’ won’t help them now. …

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

The challenges facing the Republic of Moldova (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, Moldova has my greatest admiration because, let’s face it, with Russia breathing down Chișinău’s neck, choosing the EU was incredibly courageous. And today our Union needs to show that very same courage to halt Russia’s hybrid war, because this alliance of Kremlin agents and exiled oligarchs who cruelly prey on the most vulnerable to foment insurrection…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Situation in Georgia (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, let’s call this exactly what it is: a pro-Russian government parroting Russian propaganda to defend a Russian law. The Georgian people won this round, but the threat is far from over. Prime Minister Garibashvili says he wants EU candidacy. Wonderful! So do the Georgians, so do I. But make no mistake, Prime Minister: if you kill your former president, no EU c…

16 Feb

2023

EN Speech

The further repressions against the people of Belarus, in particular the cases of Andrzej Poczobut and Ales Bialiatski (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, I’m holding back my anger. We should be debating free Belarus’s European future today. But we can’t because Belarus isn’t free yet. Putin’s lapdog is still throwing the country’s very best people in jail, people like my friend Ales Bialiatski, an absolute beacon of human rights. He should be released immediately. But the question is: are we doing enough…

15 Feb

2023

NL Speech

The erosion of the rule of law in Greece: the wiretapping scandal and media freedom (topical debate)

Watch

Mr President, Greece has dropped from 70th to 108th place in the World Press Freedom Index in a year. Nowhere in Europe is freedom of the press as bad as in Greece. This is a bad thing. The vast majority of Greek media is owned by wealthy owners who have close ties to the government. Journalists who are still independent face intimidation, smear campaigns and lawsuits. In fact, Predator software i…

15 Feb

2023

EN Speech

One year of Russia’s invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President. Thank you, High Representative Borrell, for your leadership on this and for your personal commitment in the past years. We have to stop giving Ukraine just enough not to lose. We need to give Ukraine what it needs to win as soon as possible. That’s our task. Not after the summer. Not next month. Now! We have to stop the incrementalism on both the sanctions and the military support. N…

18 Jan

2023

NL Speech

Situation of journalists in Morocco, notably the case of Omar Radi

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Mr President, today we are writing a little bit of history. For the first time in decades, the European Parliament is debating Morocco’s human rights violations. Especially after Morocco cracked down on the peaceful Hirak protests in the northern Rif region, the list of human rights violations has become long. Omar Radi, a fantastic journalist who denounced the corruption of the Moroccan governmen…

17 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Implementation of the common foreign and security policy - annual report 2022 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy - annual report 2022 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, dear High Representative, thanks also to the rapporteur of the CFSP report. This year was the year in which Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine forced our Union to reach geopolitical maturity because the assault of autocrats against global democracy and freedom is stronger than ever. But so are we. We stand united in our resolve, and under your decisive leadership, in our actions.…

17 Jan

2023

EN Speech

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

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Madam President, Presidency, Commission, security, effective management, operational and strategic cooperation. Do not be misguided. These words are not about enhanced cooperation on defence. These come from the Swedish Presidency intentions on the Asylum and Migration Pact. And I’m aware of the political background of the Swedish government and I did not expect many nice words. Nevertheless, I th…

14 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Chinese government crackdown on the peaceful protests across the People's Republic of China

Watch

Thank you for that question dear colleague. I think it’s of great importance that we continue to do our work despite what’s happening and despite the terrible circumstances that we find ourselves here in this House. And my colleague, Mr Repasi, already referred to that, we need to stand together as Parliament as a whole, together to defend our values in the European Union and to support everyone w…

14 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Chinese government crackdown on the peaceful protests across the People's Republic of China

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, yes, the greatest gift that we can do to autocrats all over the world is to stop doing our job in here defending human rights. I will continue in my mother tongue, Dutch. Heel China gingen ze door, de beelden van de gruwelijke brand in het Oeigoerse Ürümqi. De Chinese bevolking ging de straat op, verenigd tegen het bewind van Xi Jinping. Dit had het momen…