What René spoke about.

12

Feb

2025

DE Speech

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Collaboration between conservatives and far right as a threat for competitiveness in the EU (topical debate)

Mr President! Colleagues! I see a clear way in which we can make the great strength of our continent – our single market – fit for the challenges of this century: by daring more Europe together; by breaking down existing boundaries and barriers that still separate our companies and jointly creating high standards of protection for workers and the environment; by becoming an attractive place for pr…

22

Jan

2025

DE Speech

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

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, especially the Prime Minister! It is good that at a time like this, someone who is a convinced European – the other Donald – takes over the presidency. In a world where the rule of thumb of the supposedly stronger is experiencing a renaissance in which everyone claims all freedom for themselves, but does not allow others, the European ‘Together we are strong!…

18

Dec

2024

DE Speech

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Preparation of the European Council of 19-20 December 2024 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, It is very welcome that the European Council will address the issue of the EU in the world. In a world that is becoming more and more united, the EU must resist the temptation to do an umbilical gaze, as it were. Instead of a return to the national, we must dare more Europe. We need to upgrade our single market to stay on par with the US and Chi…

27

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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Presentation by the President-elect of the Commission of the College of Commissioners and its programme (debate)

Madam President, Madam President of the Commission! In the Commission you are proposing, every government can once again appoint a commissioner. But to conclude that you can freely change majorities in this spectrum is a fallacy. This degrades this House to a notary of the Commission. A self-esteem that we already had to experience during the hearings. Those who prefer to form narrow majorities wi…

23

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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The important role of cities and regions in the EU – for a green, social and prosperous local development (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Local authorities and the European Union are in a boat. The Member States are giving us more and more tasks, but no money. In such a situation, you have to be particularly good at budgeting. It was a particularly bad idea for the Commission to put the money from the EU budget into an overall package and then – in a nutshell – send it over to the Me…

23

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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U-turn on EU bureaucracy: the need to axe unnecessary burdens and reporting to unleash competitiveness and innovation (topical debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! This debate, as I predict it now, will be a strange one. For all, I suppose all, will say here: Yes, cutting red tape is important and right, and we have to tackle that – and yes, I say so. But the really exciting thing is: What do you mean by that? I am annoyed in this debate that this buzzword is always thrown around with bureaucracy reduction, a…

18

Jul

2024

DE Speech

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Statement by the candidate for President of the Commission (debate)

Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, ladies and gentlemen! It is the noblest task of the European Commission to organise the protection of Europe from its internal and external enemies and adversaries. We must not underestimate the enemies from the inside, they come in the guise of open rejection – we have seen a few splendid examples here today – or in the sheep's clothing of those who appear so c…

22

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market (debate)

Madam President, dear Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen! This week is an important one: With the vote on the ban on forced labour products and the EU Supply Chain Act, we are creating nothing less than a reprogramming of our internal market. We are finally using our global economic power, not only to set product standards worldwide, but production standards. We say now: If you…

22

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Common rules promoting the repair of goods (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! In fact, this was already a special plenary debate, as I heard a word of criticism, but otherwise cross-party broad support throughout the House. When you hear something like this, you have to say: Either we did everything wrong, or we did everything right. Of course, I think the former is the case. There are many reasons why this was possible, …

22

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Common rules promoting the repair of goods (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! This mandate, which is coming to an end this week, was under the impression that our generation must overcome the greatest challenge here, namely to stop man-made climate change. A challenge that doesn't end on June 9. Our economy must face this challenge in the same way. However, the market does not always seem to be able to produce products th…

13

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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European Semester for economic policy coordination 2024 – European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social priorities for 2024 (joint debate – European Semester)

Mr President, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, Let me briefly discuss a few things from this debate, first of all the role of the European Parliament in the Semester. I think it is a bit absurd that there are actually elected MEPs who refuse to give the European Parliament more rights of influence. When we look at the role of the European Parliament in the Semester, we are thrown away with inf…

13

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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European Semester for economic policy coordination 2024 – European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social priorities for 2024 (joint debate – European Semester)

Mr President, Commissioner, honourable Presidency of the Council, ladies and gentlemen! The challenges for European economic and budgetary policy are enormous. Above all, we need to make our economy fit for the fight against climate change, including its opportunities. We need to ensure our competitiveness in a world where all other economies open the tax money cock to support their industries. At…

12

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The EU supply chain law is now a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. First act: to the Member States. What kind of theater are you playing? To the FDP or Italy – you put your own Council troop to the test. The Presidency of the Council is doing everything it can to enforce the requirements of the Member States, is making a deal, and then it sa…

11

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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Substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive) (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! How nice it would be if we, as consumers, could go to the store and spend our hard-earned money on products that don't harm the planet. As soon as you arrive at the store, you are flooded with climate-neutral and ecologically valuable products. After that, the planet would have to become cooler rather than warmer. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all th…

28

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Regaining our competitive edge - a prosperous EU in a fragmented global economy (topical debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen! Europe has a competitiveness problem. We tackle this by making Europe a place of creative destruction. It's not government money that will save us, it's innovation. But what about Europe? In universities, everything takes place except research. Instead, researchers are placed in vast amounts of research funding applications that have litt…

8

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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The case of Dentsu tracking and the lack of transparency of the European Commission with regard to the tobacco industry (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! People's trust must be earned hard, and that trust from our citizens is so extremely important for the work we do here. In principle, it has always been three to zero when the EU starts to regulate. We are expected to act in the public interest when we act here. A trust that we build up hard over years, decades, but can be smashed in milliseconds; …

16

Jan

2024

DE Speech

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Empowering consumers for the green transition (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Our economic model is a discontinued model. More and more quickly we have to buy new products at ever cheaper prices. Our planet can't stand it anymore. Our growth is unsustainable. That's why we need nothing less than a transformation of our economic model so that we can buy better and sustainable products that are durable. For this purpose, produ…

13

Dec

2023

DE Speech

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Jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner! What kind of union do we want to be? Should a status that we have legally obtained as EU citizens in one Member State be recognised throughout the EU? Or are our citizens losing their rights when they cross the border? A child is a child in one Member State and an orphan in the other? Clearly the former. It is not for nothing that the European Court of Justice sees it t…

22

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Threat to rule of law as a consequence of the governmental agreement in Spain (debate)

Mr President, Mr Commissioner, dear colleagues, it is emotionally understandable that the right side of the house is frustrated after the Spanish elections. Yet it is rather surprising that the Commission gets involved in an internal legislative process even before a draft law is adopted. The Commission should, at least in my understanding, stand beyond party politics. But more importantly, the am…

22

Nov

2023

DE Speech

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Reducing regulatory burden to unleash entrepreneurship and competitiveness (topical debate)

Madam President, Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen! Cutting red tape is on everyone's lips, but I have to say, it's really an absurd debate. Let the EPP decide. A few weeks ago, they invited Anu Bradford from the United States and cheered her for the Brussels effect, which means: Everyone in the world wants to imitate our product standards, and that's why it's the single marke…

21

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Common rules promoting the repair of goods (A9-0316/2023 - René Repasi) (vote)

Mr President, dear colleagues, thanks a lot for this very huge majority supporting the report, which will boost our negotiations with the trilogue to come. In order to do so, Mr President, I would like to request the matter to be referred back to the committee in order to start interinstitutional negotiations, pursuant to Rule 59 of our Rules of Procedure.…

20

Nov

2023

DE Speech

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Common rules promoting the repair of goods

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for the debate and, above all, thank you for the broad support that this debate has shown in this House from right to left – above all, not only in supporting the Commission proposal, but in being even more ambitious. This is a clear message to the Council, which it should also take home very much. I would still like to touch on one aspec…

20

Nov

2023

DE Speech

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Common rules promoting the repair of goods

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The Commission has calculated that every year we produce 35 million tonnes of waste simply because we do not repair goods that are actually functional, but throw them away. The majority of citizens want to have their products repaired. But what happens today if you want to have your defective product repaired? Within the statutory warranty perio…

18

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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Fighting disinformation and dissemination of illegal content in the context of the Digital Services Act and in times of conflict (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Law is only as good as its enforcement. That is why it is good, Commissioner, that you have acted. When dealing with fake news and hate messages, social media has once again confirmed that self-regulation does not work, especially if self-limitation interferes with commercial interests. This is precisely the moment when the law must intervene with …

5

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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Financial services contracts concluded at a distance (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Dark patterns are a plague of the internet. It's bad enough that we consumers on the Internet are regularly tempted to make decisions that we don't actually want, to buy products that we don't actually need. Such behaviors are particularly vile when they let people run into debt traps. It's good to have something Dark patterns have entered into thi…