What René spoke about.

3

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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The 10th consecutive increase in reference interest rates decided by the ECB and its consequences (debate)

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, Commission, ladies and gentlemen! Today we are debating the tenth consecutive increase in interest rates by the ECB. That is to say, we are discussing here the increase in the price of loans for necessary investments, the increase in the price of mortgages, and yes, very rightly, Commissioner, it is the poor who are much harder hit by this when we have monetary pol…

13

Sep

2023

DE Speech

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Regulation of prostitution in the EU: its cross-border implications and impact on gender equality and women’s rights (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! We agree that we want to protect people here from human rights violations, violence and exploitation, especially those who, for lack of alternatives, find themselves in a life situation where they are exposed to gender-based, psychological, physical and sexual violence. What to do? The state – the public sector – must be able to use all its possibi…

12

Sep

2023

DE Speech

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Single market emergency instrument (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Crises always develop the same way: In the beginning is the hubris, in the end we panic. If you look closely, however, crises are slowly developing with concrete alarm signs, as can be seen from scientific studies after the crisis and in retrospect. In the crisis, however, such alarm signs are hardly seen. Instead: In the beginning, hubris. Some…

10

Jul

2023

DE Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, On July 12th, the time has come: This is the moment that many Swifties have been waiting for. The ticket pre-sale for Taylor Swift's Germany tour begins. Tickets for megastars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are not only driving up inflation in Sweden, they are also creating golden times for ticket sellers. The phenomenon is called dynamic pricing or Dynamic pr…

14

Jun

2023

DE Answer

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Make Europe the place to invest (debate)

So, in parts of the analysis, I thought: Yeah, now it's getting interesting. When I heard the question of slowing down Fit for 55 in order to make investment more attractive, I really couldn't go along with it anymore. It has already been said more often today in the debate: Standstill is regression. We must achieve the Paris climate goals; This is not pseudoscience, this is a fact. If we want to …

14

Jun

2023

DE Speech

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Make Europe the place to invest (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. We are discussing here how to make Europe a place for investment. And we're actually asking ourselves the question: How beautiful is the bride? – the question we asked ourselves when the Americans arrived with their Inflation Reduction Act. In my opinion, we are placing our light too much under the bushel here. The answer seemed to be this: Just…

12

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Competition policy - annual report 2022 (debate)

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, dear colleagues, I think this was a good debate on the annual competition policy report – a debate that is hopefully having its implications and impact on the European Commission’s course of action in conducting competition policy. As it is the exclusive competence of the Commission to do so, parliamentary involvement is, from my perspective at least, lacking. I…

12

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Competition policy - annual report 2022 (debate)

Mr President, dear Madam Executive Vice-President of the Commission, dear colleagues, we are currently experiencing tectonic shifts in US economic policy under the acronyms of NZIA, CRA, SMEI, ASAIP, or the Chips Act acronym. Competition policy is affected by these shifts and must take a position. It must be underlined, the competition policy is an autonomous policy field and not subject or a tool…

31

May

2023

DE Speech

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Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Money moves the world – a world where companies are hardly impressed by understaffed state regulators and liability claims, the preconditions of which are difficult to prove by plaintiffs and plaintiffs. No, in this world they are only afraid that the money tap will be turned on them if they do not care about human rights and the environment in the…

9

May

2023

DE Speech

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Empowering consumers for the green transition (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I have just heard that the position that we, as the European Parliament, have adopted by a majority in committee and will probably also adopt by a majority in plenary, goes beyond what the Commission would like. This is the question of dark patterns. There will be a report, then there will be elections, then there may be a new Commissioner, a ne…

9

May

2023

DE Speech

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Revision of the Stability and Growth Pact (debate)

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! The reform of the Stability and Growth Pact was more than overdue. Overdue because the rules were simply not adhered to, because the fantasy world of fiscal rules had nothing to do with economic reality in any way. It is therefore positive that the Commission has learned lessons, that it has created a spending rule. It is good that the Commiss…

19

Apr

2023

DE Speech

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Digital euro (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The digital euro is an exciting project, born in response to Libra, of which hardly anyone speaks today. It raises an important question: What role can public money play in contrast to private bank money and private digital money? The answer to this question tells us how to shape a digital euro. I believe that the central task of the digital euro i…

18

Apr

2023

DE Speech

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The need for a coherent strategy for EU-China Relations (debate)

Mr President, High Representative, ladies and gentlemen! In principle, it is easy to have a coherent strategy for EU-China relations. Firstly, it is right for us to define our strategic autonomy – whatever we may understand in detail – ourselves or independently, without being guided by the interests of our partners or non-partners. This means that we need to diversify our trade relations in order…

29

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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General Product Safety Regulation (debate)

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen. It was necessary to adapt the 2001 Product Safety Directive to modernity – perhaps even postmodernity. Consumers are now buying online, they are increasingly buying products from third countries and there are more and more new products, in particular those linked to software. This had to be addressed. It is therefore good that we get this prod…

15

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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Cross-border adoptions from third countries (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Separating children from their parents in order to give them to other people for adoption is a crime against all those involved: the children who are torn from their families, the parents from whom the child is taken, and ultimately the adoptive parents. To prevent this from happening internationally, we have – Commissioner said this – the Hague…

14

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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Establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body (debate)

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, Madam Minister! Yes, people to whom their own beliefs mean so little that they put them up for sale do so, no matter how strict the rules are and how harshly they are enforced. There is, and yes, there will always be; Let's not fool ourselves. But we can – yes, we must do everything we can to make it as unattractive, as difficult as possible for such people to b…

13

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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EU funding allocated to NGOs incriminated in the recent corruption revelations and the protection of EU financial interests (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I listen to the debate here and I ask myself the question – all the time: What is this really about? Why are we discussing this today? NGOs in the Transparency Register must disclose their funding. Ja, tun sie jetzt schon. NGOs that do not disclose their funding should not talk to us MEPs – very gladly. Please join me in tightening this up. Shou…

19

Jan

2023

DE Speech

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The Global Gateway Initiative (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! This plenary week has a narrative: On Monday we celebrated the 30th. On Wednesday we had a debate on the global competitiveness of the European Union and on our response, our response to the American Inflation Reduction Act. Today we are discussing the Global Gateway initiative. What is the narrative? What does that hold together? The single market…

18

Jan

2023

DE Speech

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An EU strategy to boost industrial competitiveness, trade and quality jobs (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen! The risk of delocalisation of future industries has been properly analysed. The focus on digitization and green energies has been correctly presented. They are beautiful and right goals. But, let’s face it: As a European Union, we do not have the financial means to do so. Just because we think this is a good thing here in plenary does …

16

Jan

2023

DE Speech

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30th Anniversary of the Single Market (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. ‘L’Europe ne se fera pas d’un coup, ni dans une construction d’ensemble. Elle se fera par des réalisations concrètes créant d’abord une solidarité de fait». This foundation of the EU, as Robert Schuman described it in 1950, was first laid by the common market of the EEC and for 30 years now by the internal market. The single market thus serves a larger objective…

14

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! My notes are there, but after the previous speaker, you can't just hold down your speech in that one minute. Because what has been said here is scandalous. We are talking about a dramatic violation of human rights. We have a resolution that is clear in its wording that what we have seen there in China, the suppression of expression, the oppressi…

14

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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Upscaling the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! Combating the social and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine is becoming expensive. And in times when the ECB is fighting inflation, it fails as a savior of states. This morning we have Europe's response to the Inflation Reduction Act The United States is discussing. Either we have to massively withdraw EU State aid control so that strong Member States can co…

22

Nov

2022

DE Speech

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EU-China relations (debate)

Madam President, High Representative, ladies and gentlemen! Our strategy vis-à-vis China is a major challenge because it poses the question: What do we want to be ourselves as a European Union at the end of the period of turboglobalisation through pandemic and war? Do we want to be a big market with rich consumers where you can sell your products cheaply? Or do we want to be a self-confident middl…

22

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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Question Time (Commission) - Future legislative reform of the Economic Governance Framework in times of social and economic crisis

To be one step more specific, an idea or an orientation in the paper that I found particularly interesting was introducing the relationship, or emphasizing the relationship, between the macroeconomic imbalance procedure and the fiscal rules. Here I am wondering to what extent expenditure that might be necessary to overcome macroeconomic imbalances has to be part of the expenditure rule or is taken…

22

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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Question Time (Commission) - Future legislative reform of the Economic Governance Framework in times of social and economic crisis

Let me please, first, take this opportunity to congratulate Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni on his birthday, being here with us in the room. Congratulations, happy birthday. Now, to my question, I very much welcome the orientations that were presented by the Commission, coming up with a lot of good proposals, solving rules that are obviously not fit for purpose. And in particular this idea that we ge…