What Rudi spoke about.

9

Sep

2025

NL 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, I would also, of course, like to thank, on my behalf, all the firefighters and all those who have worked for civil protection and the like for all that they have done during this summer's catastrophe. After all, many of them have paid a high price, even with their lives. I am pleased that much is now being said and promised, but I also hope that something is actually being done. I am…

16

Jun

2025

NL Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I do not know how you feel, but at least I am very ashamed. We have apparently already forgotten all the victims, as well as all the sacrifices made by our parents and grandparents to build a Europe of peace and justice after the chaos, hatred and the more than 80 million deaths during the two world wars. I thought we were done with colonialism, with white supre…

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, today we remember the millions who died fighting against fascism. And yet colleagues here wanted to give the Nobel Prize to a billionaire who does the Roman salute. Those nostalgic of fascism has no idea what it was like. The brutality, starvation and terror. The similarities today are worrying: criminalisation of dissent, militarism, poverty, disdain for workers and human rights. Fa…

5

May

2025

NL Speech

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Control of the financial activities of the European Investment Bank – annual report 2023 (debate)

5

May

2025

NL Speech

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Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – combating fraud – annual report 2023 (debate)

2

Apr

2025

NL Speech

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European Steel and Metals Action Plan (debate)

Mr President, ArcelorMittal made a profit of EUR 1.2 billion last year. In January 2024, the company received €850 million to decarbonise its production. In November 2024, the company announced its intention to close two plants and relocate jobs outside Europe. Flanders gave ArcelorMittal 600 million euros for the production of green steel, but this effort is now postponed due to energy insecurity…

31

Mar

2025

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, last week, the workers of the catering services in Parliament protested because management outsourced their work to private companies, and the way these companies treat them is simply not worthy of an institution that always complains about labour rights violations, but only abroad. Catering is currently outsourced to a British multinational. How do multinationals win these contra…

12

Mar

2025

EN Speech

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Social and employment aspects of restructuring processes: the need to protect jobs and workers’ rights (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, 'restructuring' – it's a kind of newspeak, isn't it? Companies are ashamed to say 'massive firing', so they call it 'restructuring'. In Belgium, we've had a few of them – in Limburg, 3 000 people fired in Liège, in Namur 500 people. How long will we allow the lives of workers to be collateral damage? Restructuring also happens in the public sector, which …

12

Mar

2025

EN Speech

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Action Plan for the Automotive Industry (debate)

Madam President, honourable Members, Commissioner, millions of jobs were lost in the automotive sector in the last 20 years – in Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and now also Germany. In the Commission's plan, there is one page about workers. They want to give them a little bit of unemployment benefits, then give them random jobs and waste their skills. Like Audi Brussels, for example: highly qualifi…

12

Feb

2025

NL Speech

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Competitiveness Compass (debate)

Mr President, the Commission is presenting its Competitiveness Compass as a plan for growth. But in reality, it is an attack on social rights and the protection of workers. While wages are stagnating, pensions are under pressure and energy costs continue to rise, the Commission is scrapping rules for companies and pumping public funds into the arms industry. The Commission promises innovation, but…

11

Feb

2025

NL Speech

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The need to address urgent labour shortages and ensure quality jobs in the health care sector (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, we are constantly being told that the shortage of health workers is due to workers who demand high wages and who are fussy and lazy. But the truth is that thousands of workers are leaving this sector as a result of cuts in health care and the privatisation imposed by the European Union. The consequences are clear: poor working conditions, unbearable workload, short-term…

11

Feb

2025

EN Speech

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Preparedness for a new trade era: multilateral cooperation or tariffs (debate)

Madam President, 'you get a tariff and you get a tariff and you all get a tariff'. This is Donald Trump's new favourite threat. At least when he's not threatening to buy or even invade your country, of course. He just announced a tariff on aluminium and steel which will have serious consequences for the European industrial sector and for industrial workers. And what's the European response? We dee…

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, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump once said that the word rates The best word was in the dictionary. He already announces that he will continue this policy with additional tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China. He calls for this to make America stronger, but let's be honest: It's just an attack on working people worldwide. Who pays the price? Not the billionaires and his cabinet,…

20

Jan

2025

NL Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis announced last week that it wants to cut 170 jobs in its branch in Puurs, Belgium, where more than 1000 employees work. Not a happy new year for employees and their families. They are faced with uncertainty. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and is very profitable. It is only recently that workers in the pha…

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, ladies and gentlemen, after 15 months and more than 50,000 deaths, 70% of which are women and children, a ceasefire is finally under way. At last the people in Gaza can breathe and humanitarian aid enters Gaza. The European Union welcomes the ceasefire, but the EU has done nothing to achieve it. The EU has done nothing to stop the killings. And let's be honest, a ceasefire is still n…

18

Dec

2024

NL Speech

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Tackling abusive subcontracting and labour market intermediaries (debate)

Mr President, in Antwerp we have already seen the consequences of subcontracting at Borealis and PostNL. A jumble of subcontracting where a cat can no longer find its young. Recently, a university study showed that there are an average of sixteen subcontractors with up to seven different layers of subcontracting. The European Union's arbitrary austerity rules force Member States and local authorit…

18

Dec

2024

NL Speech

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Promoting social dialogue and collective bargaining and the right to strike in the EU (debate)

Mr President, I am very concerned about the large number of European politicians who are trying to restrict workers' rights to strikes and collective agreements. Just as we are facing unprecedented corporate greed and direct attacks on workers' rights. Take the Arizona coalition in Belgium, for example. They're not even in government yet, and yet they're already talking about restricting the right…

27

Nov

2024

NL Speech

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Rise of energy prices and fighting energy poverty (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, energy prices are skyrocketing once again. And do you know what that means for ordinary people in Europe? This means that more and more people have to make the choice between a hot meal or heating their home. This is a disaster for ordinary families, who face fears every time they expect their energy bills. But it is also a disaster for the industry. Only the largest mu…

13

Nov

2024

NL Speech

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Order of business

Mr President, I did indeed want to intervene on the basis of Rule 136, but you have already referred to the reason why the President of the European Council is not here. I would have liked to ask a few questions in connection with the European Council meetings that have passed, but I cannot ask my question. I note that it is not only today that there is apparently a structural problem with Mr Mich…

23

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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Tackling the steel crisis: boosting competitive and sustainable European steel and maintaining quality jobs (debate)

Mr President, the European steel industry is faltering and it is time for action. Steel is the backbone of construction, the transport sector and actually the entire industry. With three hundred thousand direct jobs and two million indirect jobs, the steel industry is of enormous importance. Nevertheless, ArcelorMittal, the largest steel producer in Europe, risks relocating its production outside …

22

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (debate)

Mr President, we talk a lot about a social Europe. However, the European Union imposes deregulation on Belgium, wants to abolish the index mechanism, demands flexibility without decent wages, wants worse pensions and a higher retirement age. The European Union is doing nothing to tackle the suppliers who force workers into precarious jobs and even a Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs i…

22

Oct

2024

NL Speech

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

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, workers in Europe are no longer paid their invoices. But here wages are simply paid up to fourteen thousand euros. The President and her European Commission even receive salaries of between twenty and thirty thousand euros per month. If the supermarket ticket explodes and energy or fuel prices skyrocket, it is a nightmare for ordinary people. Here, on the other …

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, ladies and gentlemen, Audi Forest in Brussels has received considerable public support to build electric cars, but has chosen to use it to build an expensive luxury model that is inaccessible to ordinary consumers. As a result, the sales figures are disappointing. Audi is now considering closing the plant, putting thousands of jobs at risk. Above all, we condemn Audi's policy. Audi r…