What Nikos spoke about.

9

Jul

2026

EN Speech

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Provision of digital euro services by payment services providers incorporated in Member States whose currency is not the euro and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1230 of the European Parliament and the Council (A10-0183/2026 - Fernando Navarrete Rojas) (vote)

Madam President, the digital euro answers a simple question: who should control Europe's financial future? The answer is Europe. To those behind the motion to block over there, when amendments weaken access to cash by reducing ATMs, you remain silent. When we challenge the foreign payments duopoly, you sided with the status quo. When we fought to cut fees for merchants, you opposed us – even today…

17

Jun

2026

EN Speech

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Protecting children’s safety and mental health from the risks posed by social media – our duty to act now (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, I think the word that we need in this discussion is the word 'addiction'. We know about alcohol. We know about cigarettes. This has to be added as a health danger. There's no doubt about it. We know that it causes isolation, depression and even, unfortunately, suicide. So let's be practical about it. We have rules, and the ones you mentioned earlier, they're basicall…

20

May

2026

EN 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, I think sometimes we need to restate the obvious and to take a look from the outside. What is the European Union, in fact? It's a very strange animal. Empires until now were built through force. Historically, it's the first time – maybe someone can correct me – where countries join of their own will, let's say, a certain 'empire'. How do they do that? They have to …

19

May

2026

EL Speech

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Commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and Greeks in Pontos and Asia Minor (debate)

Mr President, today, 19 May, we mourn the genocide of the Pontians. Executions, rapes, deportation marches to the interior of Anatolia, moving cemeteries. This is how Turkey closed its modern state. In this way he erased the rich culture of the Pontians with a history of 2 500 years. Denial of the fact has consequences. It is not just a matter of memory and historical justice. The lack of an apolo…

18

May

2026

EL Speech

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European solidarity: key to securing medicine access in a shifting geopolitical era (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner Várhelyi, ladies and gentlemen, we have learned, or rather late in learning, that we are increasingly dependent on foreign countries for our medicines. Geopolitics has also invaded the pharmaceutical industry. Politics of foreign powers threaten our national health systems. Competition is tough, and it's a competition that costs lives. In response to these challenges, we…

27

Apr

2026

EL Speech

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Financial literacy and the rise of finfluencers in the context of the savings and investments union (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner Albuquerque, we have, of course, we live in the age of artificial intelligence and the internet and within the internet, we all know, we have the good and the bad. The phenomenon of finfluencer has developed, abbreviation of the financial influencer, which gives both correct advice and bad advice. But how do we figure it out? I, as an economist's perversion, will divi…

11

Feb

2026

EN Speech

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Urgent actions to revive EU competitiveness, deepen the EU Single Market and reduce the cost of living - from the Draghi report to reality (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, briefly on the Green Deal – yes, the Green Deal will cost more, but better to spend now than later. It's like preventive health: do we want the patient to get sick and pay ICU or to be healthy now and spend much less? So, yes, it's going to cost. Now, why do we want the single market? Why do we have so much pressure in the Draghi report? Because that'll make – to use…

9

Feb

2026

EN Speech

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European Central Bank – annual report 2025 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, Ms Lagarde, good to see you again – you come here very often, which shows the democratic accountability of the ECB. So since we mentioned the digital euro, and that is in the report, you know that every time we use our cards, 85 % of the time, some of the money goes across the Atlantic. But not only that, even the European cards, they have to use Visa/Mastercard soft…

21

Jan

2026

EN Speech

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Online piracy of sports and other live events: urgent need to address unsolved issues (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner Micallef, this discussion shows that we are all on your side, and I like what you said in your introduction. We need to improve on the situation. That's what we're saying. Live streaming is part of our era's zeitgeist, to use a German word. Except we have these money-hungry groups that want to take away something from us and they call them pirates. But when we say pirate…

21

Jan

2026

EN Speech

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Preparations for the EU-India summit (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, last year in Athens, President Modi emphasised the need for a renewed EU-India partnership. Given the vote today on Mercosur, of course, I think the lesson for us on this is let's do it right this time. We are here in Parliament to make sure that we take care of the concerns, and it seems that we are turning around 30 years of growth, which was free-trade growth. It …

19

Jan

2026

EN Speech

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Framework for strengthening the availability and security of supply of critical medicinal products as well as the availability of, and accessibility of, medicinal products of common interest (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner Kadis, so what is this Critical Medicine Act about? I'm going to be technical on this one. I won't be so political. I think the people need to hear what it really is. First of all, it's a response to the risk in supply chains. And we've seen that in the last few years. We have measures to protect us. Stockpiling is one of them. Another one is to encourage more investm…

15

Dec

2025

EL Speech

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Impact of the geopolitical situation on European patients and their access to medicines (debate)

Mr President, today we are voting on the Critical Medicines Act. Why are we doing this? This is a regulation that incentivises not only investment and production in Europe, but also clinical trials, research in universities of a public nature, and clinical trials. The pandemic has shown us that we have many shortcomings. This law is trying to solve the problem of shortcomings. As we saw with the c…

26

Nov

2025

EN Speech

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Protecting citizens' right to make cash payments and ensuring financial inclusion (debate)

Mr President, colleagues, I'm not sure why there is a problem. I heard Mr Ferber. I heard a very good introduction from the Commissioner, with which I agree. And I do hope by 2026 we get there – maybe it'll be five years, a little bit slow. I think it's the ECR who has perhaps confused that digital will take the place of real cash. And the thing about the single currency package is that it makes c…

26

Nov

2025

EN Speech

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Escalating repression of the Baha'is in Iran

Mr President, to the Mullahs of Iran: enough with 40 years of prosecuting, killing, executing and arresting the community of Baha'i. One has to wonder why 300 000 members of the Baha'i are such a threat to the Iranian regime. I think it's clear: they preach love; they work in society, in the community; they have charitable acts. And the other thing that the Mullahs can't stand is the equality of g…

24

Nov

2025

EL Speech

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30th anniversary of the Barcelona Process and the new pact for the Mediterranean (debate)

9

Oct

2025

EN Speech

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World Mental Health Day - addressing the socio-economic factors (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, as the last speaker, I'd like to sum up what we heard in one minute. I think there's three things. First of all, we were talking about dealing with the mental health problem per se, the person. That means we're looking at the individual. That means we need more healthcare professionals. We also did not mention the healthcare asylums, and it was Michel Foucault who said …

11

Sep

2025

EN Speech

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A new vision for the European Universities alliances (debate)

Mr President, why do we love the European Alliance? For those who are not in the plenary: Leibniz University in Germany, the National Technical University in Athens, Brno University of Technology in Czechia, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology in Finland, Jönköping University in Sweden, University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, the Technical Unive…

10

Sep

2025

EL Speech

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Detention of EU citizens in the occupied areas of Cyprus

Mr President, Commissioner, it is not enough that Erdogan has taken over half of Libya. It is not enough that he has taken Syria and controlled it. It is not enough that a few years ago he bombed Armenia. It is not enough that he tries to change history and name the Aegean "Tourkegaio". It is not enough that he has imprisoned many Kurds and mayors in Istanbul and elsewhere. Now he wants to impriso…

9

Sep

2025

EN Speech

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Devastating wildfires in Southern Europe: the need to strengthen EU aid to restore the massive loss of forests and enhancing EU preparedness (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, I agree with much of what you said. We have the 2022 Wildfire Prevention Plan, but we can do more. I'm not going to criticise. We have a new world. Mega fires – and I went to the town of Patras – double in size in 30 seconds. So the main concept is prevention – and our firemen will tell you that; I'm a part of a volunteer firefighting group. And I want to propose, not a…

8

Sep

2025

EL Speech

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

Madam President, Commissioner, the report by Mrs Lalucq and Mr Draghi deals with the question of 'how to get out of bad European capitalism' (French in the speech: "comment sortir de notre mauvais capitalisme européen’). The difference between America and Europe is what this committee and this report are discussing. On the one hand we see huge wealth in America, we see European money going to Palo…

18

Jun

2025

EN Speech

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Rise in violence and the deepening humanitarian crisis in South Sudan (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, this is the fifth time we speak about Sudan, and I'd like to mention something that has not been discussed. And that is the role of the foreign actors in worsening the disaster in Sudan. We have a member of NATO, and a country that wants to be part of the SAFE architecture, and it's called Türkiye. There's robust proof that Türkiye is selling drones and military equi…

8

May

2025

EN 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, I find it very interesting that just a few minutes ago we had a Member who was born in the gulag who spoke here. We have two Members whose families were involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler. This Chamber is haunted by those memories. My grandmother told me stories of the Great Famine in Athens in 1941. My grandfather was chased by Kurt Waldheim and escaped to Egypt, and then wa…

7

May

2025

EN Speech

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Return of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred and deported by Russia

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, thank you. Of course we condemn these kidnappings. There is a Greek word in the civil war called Paidomazoma, which was a practice. And we worry also that they convert them to hate Ukraine. There are bad. There are worse within the bad, when they kidnapped 100 children from the special school in the Kherson Oblast, in their wheelchairs and with their psychological…

7

May

2025

EN Speech

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Competition policy – annual report 2024 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, today we are discussing competition policy in the EU, and I always think it's a little ironic for a socialist Member to be talking about competition. But what we're talking about is something that the socialist movement has done for 150 years: a capitalism that produces the surplus for a good welfare state. And that's where we differ on our two sides. We want this ca…

3

Apr

2025

EN Speech

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European Action Plan on Rare Diseases (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, it sounds like a conundrum, 30 million rare diseases, as that doesn't sound so rare, but we know what we mean. Per disease it's very rare, but in total it's not. This leads naturally to one point I want to make – something that sounds technical: cross-border clinical trials, as that way we pool the few per country, but that also fits into our European vision of countrie…