What Anna spoke about.

18

Jun

2025

EN Speech

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Electricity grids: the backbone of the EU energy system (debate)

Madam President, I would like to say thank you, Commissioner, and thank you, colleagues, for this debate. Now, I heard that the far-right in this House is quite worried, so let me address some of those worries. You seem to be quite shocked by the numbers of the investment needed: EUR 584 billion by 2030. Yes, that is a lot of money. But let me put it in perspective: EUR 1.8 trillion by 2030 is wha…

18

Jun

2025

EN Speech

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Electricity grids: the backbone of the EU energy system (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, just one year ago, I started my days just like everyone else: unplugging my phone, boiling my kettle for my tea and starting my computer to check my emails. Never really thinking about how the electricity that was powering my day actually got into my home. I just took it for granted. Well, over the past year, I've spent my time learning everything I could about our elec…

7

May

2025

DE Speech

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Resilience and the need to improve the interconnection of energy grid infrastructure in the EU: the first lessons from the blackout in the Iberian Peninsula (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister! Five seconds, then. It took five seconds before the Spanish network collapsed and Spain and Portugal were dark. But it took about the same amount of time until the first speculations were there and, above all, until – and we have already experienced it again here in this House – this situation was used for populism and ideological trenches, ideological stru…

2

Apr

2025

DE Speech

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Energy-intensive industries (debate)

Madam President, Mr Executive Vice-President! We have a vision: A clean future where we are independent of oil despots and gas autocrats, where we drive progress and drive innovation. But to achieve this vision, we also need to start at the grassroots level, and in many cases this is the energy-intensive industry, from bricks to steel, but also new industries such as AI. Sustainable homes, but als…

11

Mar

2025

DE Speech

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Clean Industrial Deal (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! 400 billion euros for fossil fuels flow from the European Union every year. Even today, three years after the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, we still source gas from Russia. It is all the more important that energy in Clean industrial deal It plays such an important role. The question of a complete energy transition, of a resilient, of a secure …

12

Feb

2025

DE Speech

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Competitiveness Compass (debate)

Mr President! Mr Executive Vice-President! Dear members! Europe's economy is under pressure, not because our companies lack ideas or commitment, but because they are structurally disadvantaged. If we want to unleash European entrepreneurship, then we must free it not only from complex rules, but above all from the shackles of expensive oil and gas. European companies pay twice as much for their en…

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! As an Austrian, let me say more than ever: Cooperation with the extreme right does not bring Europe any further. This should be clear to anyone who takes a look at their agenda. They want to lock us up in national fortresses, a fortress Austria. But a world of fortresses is a pretty gloomy, a pretty lonely world. They not only want to deprive our citizens of their freedom, they preve…

22

Jan

2025

DE Speech

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EU financing through the LIFE programme of entities lobbying EU institutions and the need for transparency (debate)

Madam President, Again and again I hear: People deserve to know what happens to their tax dollars. I don't see it that way. Transparency is not something you have to earn first. People have a right to know what is being done with their money. Transparency is not a free choice, it is our duty. And we live in times when more and more people are losing faith in politics. No wonder we hear about bough…

18

Dec

2024

EN Speech

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Restoring the EU’s competitive edge – the need for an impact assessment on the Green Deal policies (topical debate)

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, we know what the far-right forces in this House want. They want to go back on the Green Deal. But what does that mean? Going back on the Green Deal means going into a future of floods, of heatwaves, of extremes; a future of water shortages, of ruined crops; a future of high costs, both financially and in human lives. The Green Deal is not only abo…

16

Dec

2024

DE Speech

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A European Innovation Act: lowering the cost of innovating in Europe (debate)

Mr President! Welcome, Commissioner! We wanted to make the EU the most competitive and sustainable dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world as early as 2000 with the Lisbon Strategy. Then again in 2010, then in the European Innovation Agenda 2022 and today with the Innovation Act. Again and again the same goals, again and again the same words. Now it is up to us, now it is up to you, Commissio…

22

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2025 – all sections (debate)

Madam President, any young person whose life has been enriched by living, studying or working abroad, whose horizon has been broadened by immersing themselves in a foreign culture or foreign language, any young person who's been able to make Europe their home through the Erasmus programme knows that this is one of the greatest achievements of the European Union. So why doesn't the Council know? Er…

21

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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A stronger Europe for safer products to better protect consumers and tackle unfair competition: boosting EU oversight in e-commerce and imports (debate)

Mr President! Yes, in almost every discussion about the EU there is a word like the Amen in prayer: Regulation. The EU as the world regulatory champion and regulation as the ultimate opponent of innovation, following the motto "You, happy Europe, regulate". There is actually an important objective behind the regulations: to protect and support people and companies, to ensure that they are not hand…

17

Sep

2024

DE Speech

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State of the Energy union (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen! So Europe is gradually withdrawing from Russian gas. All of Europe? Not all of Europe. Because a small country in the heart of Europe called Austria is still firmly in Russian hands. Here we have not seen any change for years, no centimeter of movement. This is despite the fact that this European Union, t…