What René spoke about.

9

Jul

2026

DE Speech

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Feasibility of a 28th tax regime and its potential to support EU competitiveness (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! EU Inc. is an important proposal for our internal market, and here I am with Mr Niedermayer of the Christian Democrats. We must dare to have a more internal market. If we dare to have a more internal market, that means, on the one hand, more liberalisation, but at the same time, European standards of protection. We really do not need dumping com…

17

Jun

2026

DE Speech

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Preparation of the European Council (joint debate)

20

May

2026

DE Speech

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High time to deliver on the Single Market, providing certainty and predictability for EU businesses and quality jobs (continuation of debate)

Madam President, Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen! We need more internal market. We pay 44% of de facto internal tariffs because our internal market is still at the limits of 27 different legal systems. While we can only ever complain about Trump's customs madness, it is in our own hands to create more internal market. With the proposal of an EU-GmbH – some also call it all-A…

29

Apr

2026

DE Speech

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EU strategy in response to the ongoing Middle East crisis, its implications on energy prices and the availability of fertilizers (joint debate)

28

Apr

2026

DE Speech

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Presentation of the Better Regulation and Enforcement Communication (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Reducing bureaucracy? – Yes. Lean and comprehensible EU rules? – Yes. Democracy and anti-parliamentarism? – Clearly no! In the case of the correct and necessary reduction of bureaucracy, all fuses are now burned through with some. One speaks of annual limits on legal acts – as we know from the asylum debates – of independent bodies that should b…

11

Mar

2026

DE Speech

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Immunity of International Criminal Court officials and the activation of the EU Blocking Statute to strengthen EU strategic autonomy (debate)

11

Mar

2026

DE Speech

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EUCO and situation in the Middle East (joint debate)

11

Feb

2026

DE Speech

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Accession of Montenegro to the Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters - Accession of the Republic of Albania to the Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters (joint debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Mr Voss and Mr Kyuchyuk have made it clear what this is about: It is common ground that the Hague Convention on the Recognition of Judgments beyond the borders of the European Union constitutes a genuine simplification for businesses and citizens, creates legal certainty and predictability of investments. It is also clear that we welcome the access…

20

Jan

2026

DE Speech

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Presentation of the programme of activities of the Cyprus Presidency (continuation of debate)

Madam President, Mr President, honourable Commission, ladies and gentlemen! First of all, the best wishes for recovery to the colleague, who just had to be carried out here. Mr President, I am proud to be a European. In a world that is getting darker and darker and in which the Bullis are resurrected from their sinking, we are the torchbearer of hope. We no longer have to explain to anyone on the …

19

Jan

2026

EN Speech

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The 28th Regime: a new legal framework for innovative companies (debate)

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, dear colleagues, thanks a lot for the debate and let me turn to some of the remarks made during the debate on the report. I believe the core contribution was the one by Pascal Canfin who said, rightly, we have a problem in growth and scaling up, not a problem of innovation. That is precisely the point why we need this 28th Regime in order to remain competitive. Th…

19

Jan

2026

DE Speech

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The 28th Regime: a new legal framework for innovative companies (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The 28th For some, the regime stands for their dreams of finally overcoming the fragmentation in the internal market, of ending the uncertainties of national transposition of directives and of building new barriers on the basis of this transposition, the so-called "regime". Gold plating. For the others, it stands for their nightmares of a Europe…

17

Dec

2025

DE Speech

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2030 Consumer Agenda (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! Dear colleagues! $7 billion – that's how much Meta earns each year from having high-risk ads. scams on its platforms – $7 billion to put consumers on the cross. In the area of financial services, people lose their lifelong savings, which they have put aside for old age, because they scams fallen victim. And it happens even to people who work for financial service pro…

17

Dec

2025

DE Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 18-19 December 2025, in particular the need to support Ukraine, transatlantic relations and the EU’s strategic autonomy (debate)

Madam President, Dear colleagues! We are facing what is probably the most important European Council since its inception. And this has something to do with the fact that when we talk about Russian assets, it's not just a matter of fact, but rather whether Ukraine still gets air to breathe or whether it has arrived at the end of the flagpole and has to submit to an American-Russian dictatorial peac…

20

Oct

2025

DE Speech

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The decision to impose a fine on Google: defending press and media freedom in the EU (debate)

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! As much as I welcome the Google decision itself, it raises many questions that I ask myself. Namely: Why was Big tech once again imposes only a fine that it can pay from the post office, instead of ordering a partial dismantling, as the Commission threatened in 2023? Why was this fine so low? Is it true that the decision was withheld by the…

10

Sep

2025

DE Speech

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State of the Union (debate)

Madam President, Madam President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen! The kneeling of Scotland has painfully shown us that it is not our strongest strength, but our weakest weakness that defines our position in the world. I don't want to blame you, Mrs. von der Leyen, for this: You have to play with the cards you get. But I ask you to do everything you can to prevent us from being pushed aroun…

9

Sep

2025

DE Speech

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Gaza at breaking point: EU action to combat famine, the urgent need to release hostages and move towards a two-state solution (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, At the age of 17, I took part in a student exchange with German, Jewish and Arab youth from Israel. My friends said at the time: We want something like your EU – two states, united in diversity. Nearly 30 years later, the dream has burst. Hamas has committed the largest mass murder of Jewish people since the Holocaust. In Gaza, we are experiencing man-made hu…

8

Sep

2025

DE Speech

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Investments and reforms for European competitiveness and the creation of a Capital Markets Union (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Our weakening competitiveness is one reason Scotland fell on its knees in early August. If we no longer want to act internationally from a position of weakness, then we must radically get to the root of our competitiveness, and that is not to delete a few regulations here or there. Rather, we need to bring the great ideas of our researchers to m…

8

Jul

2025

DE Speech

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Preparation for the 2025 EU–China Summit - Tackling China's critical raw materials export restrictions

Madam President, Madam President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen! EUR 300 billion is the trade deficit between the EU and China. Are Chinese goods really so much better than European goods under fair competition conditions? Hardly. Our companies face barriers to market access in China, unfair subsidies that make fair competition impossible, and a political leadership that uses economic pow…

8

May

2025

DE Answer

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80 years after the end of World War II - freedom, democracy and security as the heritage of Europe (debate)

Mr Colleague, I am aware that things still need to be improved in the relationship between Germany and Poland and that there are also corresponding discussions between the former Federal Government and the new Federal Government and the Polish Government in this regard. I cannot and will not prejudge these conversations, but your question was whether I am aware of it. And yes, I am aware of that. …

8

May

2025

DE Answer

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80 years after the end of World War II - freedom, democracy and security as the heritage of Europe (debate)

Mr. Colleague! What Nazi Germany has done to the world is never reparable in the sense of compensation. This crime has an intensity that it can never leave us Germans, but with us Germans, us Europeans and all citizens of the world, because it represents a responsibility for our everyday actions. That's why you can't free yourself from this responsibility, nor can you free yourself from it, and to…

8

May

2025

DE Speech

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80 years after the end of World War II - freedom, democracy and security as the heritage of Europe (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. 80 years after the end of the Second World War, the last survivors of the Shoah, the concentration camps of the war, leave us. With them, we don't just lose eyewitnesses. We lose voices that have warned firsthand what can happen when hatred and indifference come together. We must never allow their experiences to be silenced. We must be their eyes, their hearts, …

7

May

2025

DE Speech

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Competition policy – annual report 2024 (debate)

Madam President, Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen! Our markets in Europe are destitute, encrusted. As Mr Ferber rightly said: Innovation is hardly happening in Europe. Let's look at digital markets: Overdominance of American companies that buy away from any approach to innovation. They do not misbehave, do not abuse their dominant position, as we say in competition law, yet t…

6

May

2025

DE Speech

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A revamped long-term budget for the Union in a changing world (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Budget law is rightly referred to as the royal law of parliaments. And this debate about the future financing of the European Union is nothing more than the exercise of this royal right. I can therefore only warn the Commission to erase this royal right, and that is what you would do if you converted the Union budget into a large pot of money from …

31

Mar

2025

DE Speech

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Savings and Investments Union (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Every day the marmot greets us when we talk about the European capital market. We are aware of the need for a genuine EU internal market for capital. We know for ourselves what it takes and where it gets stuck. Uniform insolvency law: The sea quietly rests in the Council. Tax unequal treatment of debt and equity: messed up in the Council. Not to me…

11

Mar

2025

DE Speech

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European Council meetings and European security (joint debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, After the bizarre scenes in the White House eleven days ago, we know: The European-American friendship no longer has reliable friends on the other side of the Atlantic. We must face the bitter reality: We are solely responsible for our safety. This requires real effort and no air bookings. 650 billion euros more in possible national debt does not lead to 800 …