What Wouter spoke about.

7

May

2025

NL Speech

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EU support for a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace in Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, how do we achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace? That is the issue today. And according to the extreme nationalists, it's very simple: The Ukrainian people must submit to Russia. Paradoxical. But there is another paradox. And that paradox is that Russia will only stop its aggression if it loses the war and that Russia will continue its aggression if it wins this war. The Ukrainia…

2

Apr

2025

NL Speech

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Energy-intensive industries (debate)

Mr President, we have two choices: Putting our heads in the sand, not listening to the signals of our industries and letting the energy-intensive sectors leave Europe, or listening to the cries of distress of these sectors, sticking our necks out and ensuring that the tens of thousands of jobs that would be lost remain in Europe. The alarms are very clear. Ten years ago, the European Union exporte…

1

Apr

2025

NL Speech

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Targeted attacks against Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – defending religious freedom and security (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, just seven weeks ago, a very large majority in this hemisphere adopted a strict resolution against the violence in eastern Congo by Rwanda and the rebel group M23. Unfortunately, the situation is still unchanged today. Kigali now even bans all development cooperation from Belgium to the detriment of its own population. With thousands of deaths and …

31

Mar

2025

NL Speech

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Situation of European academics and researchers in the US and the impact on academic freedom (debate)

Mr President, ‘everything that is truly great and inspiring has been created by individuals who can work in complete freedom’, says Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein, and with him many others, including the thinkers of the Frankfurt School and Hannah Arendt, fled Nazism and fascism in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and went to the United States to develop their academic ideas in complete freedom and spa…

11

Mar

2025

NL Speech

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White paper on the future of European defence (debate)

Mr President, Who will defend Europe? This is not just the title of a book. That is also the crucial question before us today. Who will defend Europe? And when the Commissioner took office, he said: We need a big bang. 800 billion is on the table, Commissioner. But yesterday you even talked on Bloomberg TV about the need for a thousand five hundred billion to protect us. Now, money is one thing. T…

11

Feb

2025

NL Speech

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US AI chip export restrictions: a challenge to European AI development and economic resilience (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, in recent weeks we have seen the United States under Trump increasingly engage in geopolitical and economic conflicts, with sanctions and trade restrictions following each other at a rapid pace. But the export restrictions on AI microchips to China predate Trump and have been imposed by the Biden administration on 17 European member states. This makes one thing very cle…

11

Feb

2025

NL Speech

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Escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, we can no longer remain silent about the situation in eastern Congo. The facts are clear: thousands of Rwandan troops on Congolese territory, an advancing rebel group – M23 – aiming to march towards Kinshasa, millions of smuggled raw materials and thousands of victims, including UN blue helmets. All this against a background of sexual abuse as a weapon and millions of i…

11

Feb

2025

NL Speech

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Wider comprehensive EU-Middle East Strategy (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, not a week goes by without a new bizarre proposal from President Trump. His latest plan to buy up and rebuild the Gaza Strip was not only bizarre, it was crazy and dangerous for the entire region. It shows once again that Europe must sit down at the table to discuss the future of the Middle East. Not only to give the Palestinian and Israeli citizens the peace they deser…

22

Jan

2025

NL Speech

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Case of Jean-Jacques Wondo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Mr President, for more than eight months now, the Belgian-Congolese Jean-Jacques Wondo has been in a Congolese cell, where he is tortured and deprived of all medical care. He was sentenced to death without much evidence because he was involved in a coup attempt. Not just him, but 36 others are facing the death penalty. The death penalty has recently been reinstated in the Democratic Republic of Co…

22

Jan

2025

NL Speech

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Uniting Europe against actors hostile to the EU: time to strengthen our security and defence (topical debate)

Mr President, according to Donald Tusk, we should not ask what America can do for our security, but we should ask ourselves what we can do for our security. In this time of geopolitical tensions, we cannot blindly rely on the US security umbrella. Trump was elected president. Putin is causing chaos, both at our borders and at the heart of our democracy. Hybrid attacks and cyberattacks are rife. We…

21

Jan

2025

NL Speech

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Need to detect and to counter sabotage by the Russian shadow fleet, damaging critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we have known for a long time now that Russia is not only fighting its war against Ukraine on the front line. In the last two years, there have been several incidents across Europe. Sabotage. Sabotage with the aim of disrupting our society, causing chaos. There's really only one word for it, and that's "terror." A clear example of this was the use …

21

Jan

2025

NL Answer

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Geopolitical and economic implications for the transatlantic relations under the new Trump administration (debate)

(Beginning of the speech next to the microphone) ... denies that Donald Trump was legally elected. He's an elected president of the United States and we're going to have to deal with it. But the way we do it depends on us. And so we have to prepare. We must not be intimidated; We need to prepare. This means: More Europe and a stronger Europe. This is completely at odds with what your group, your g…

21

Jan

2025

NL Speech

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Geopolitical and economic implications for the transatlantic relations under the new Trump administration (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in Trump's first speech as 47th President, Europe was not worth a word in his speech. That could be good news. Maybe Europe wasn't a target. It can also be bad news. Maybe it just wasn't worth it for him to talk about it. Trump's unpredictability is great. In his first term, he broke more than half of his electoral promises and ran 30,000 times wit…

20

Jan

2025

NL Speech

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Ceasefire in Gaza - the urgent need to release the hostages, to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to pave the way for a two-state solution (debate)

Mr President, after more than 471 days, the weapons in Gaza are silent. That's not a day too early. As fragile as the truce may be for the time being, it will hopefully allow us to turn one of the darkest pages in the history of the Middle East, both for the Palestinians and for the Israelis. If we zoom out for a moment, we see that there are several positive signs in the region: the fall of Assad…

18

Dec

2024

NL Speech

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Challenges facing EU farmers and agricultural workers: improving working conditions, including their mental well-being (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, farmers experience more stress and pressure on mental well-being than other professions. The Flemish Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries and Food Research (ILVO) identified no less than seven stress factors, including occupational risks, a lack of appreciation and workload. But the core of the problem for many farmers lies here in European policy. An uncertain future …

18

Dec

2024

NL Speech

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

Mr President, Commissioner, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. That's what we all wish for each other these days. But it is not at our external borders. There is the war in Ukraine, and Putin, which destroys electricity infrastructure and thus figuratively and literally leaves the Ukrainians in the cold. We have received here this morning the Georgian President, who courageously encourages the …

17

Dec

2024

NL Speech

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Misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms, such as TikTok, and related risks to the integrity of elections in Europe (debate)

Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, our Western democracy, which depends on the trust of elections and in elections. Objective, fair, impartial elections are the absolute foundation of a Western democratic society. As Nelson Mandela once rightly said: ‘a free press, free opinion’. Free media is essential to the functioning of our democracy. For many of us, today's press is also social media. I…

17

Dec

2024

NL Speech

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Toppling of the Syrian regime, its geopolitical implications and the humanitarian situation in the region (debate)

Mr President, Madam High Commissioner, you were in office for one week and one authoritarian regime has already fallen. We can only welcome the fall of Assad. Anyone who doubts whether we should be happy with that should take a look at the images of the Sednaya prison or listen to the testimonies. A human prison, a human slaughterhouse, the slaughterhouse of Assad. This is a new opportunity. Yes, …

26

Nov

2024

NL Speech

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Continued escalation in the Middle East: the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, UNRWA’s essential role in the region, the need to release all hostages and the recent ICC arrest warrants (debate)

26

Nov

2024

NL Answer

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Reinforcing EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression and the increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia (debate)

26

Nov

2024

NL Speech

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Reinforcing EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression and the increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia (debate)

22

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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Establishing the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism and providing exceptional macro-financial assistance to Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, High Representative, colleagues, last week, the media reported that Europe’s support for Ukraine is a matter of many words but few actions. Lots of blablabla, but little bumbu. Today we are proving the opposite and that is much needed. Last week, the Ukrainian Minister of Defence visited this European Parliament and spoke of a lack of supplies of weapons, ammunition and…

21

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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Empowering the Single Market to deliver a sustainable future and prosperity for all EU citizens (debate)

Mr President, Prime Minister Letta, EUR 33 trillion (yes, EUR 33 000 billion), that is how much savings there is in the European Union. An incredibly large amount, especially when you consider that there are so many start-ups and scale-ups, so many companies and SMEs that want to invest in the digital transition, the green transition, defence, the technological sector and agriculture. We will soon…

8

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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The crisis facing the EU’s automotive industry, potential plant closures and the need to enhance competitiveness and maintain jobs in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Mr Vice-President of the European Commission, Audi Brussels is closing. Seven to eight years ago, I was involved in the future, the new discovery of Audi Brussels. Then we would build a car factory in Brussels that would be the most efficient, the most future-oriented. The first fully electric Audi model would be built there. Audi is closing today. That's the paradox, because that's …

8

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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Preparation of the European Council of 17-18 October 2024 (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen of the Commission, I would like to take this opportunity to draw attention to the situation in Ukraine, including in the preparation of this European Council. Things are not going well in Ukraine. Donbas is under pressure and difficult times are also coming for the Ukrainian people. Winter is coming. Russia has succeeded in destroying two thirds of Ukraine’s ener…