What Benoit spoke about.

6 Oct

2026

FR Speech

The state of play of advancing EU-Africa trade and investment relations (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in the current geopolitical context, strengthening the Europe-Africa partnership is more than strategic; it is essential. In the face of global competition, Europe must be the partner of choice to forge solutions on an equal footing. Economic Partnership Agreements, like new agreements to facilitate and secure sustainable investment, are essential tools, but …

19 May

2026

FR Speech

Presentation of the Fertilisers Action Plan (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Europe must overcome its contradictions. As we ask our farmers to produce more sustainably, we are slowly shutting down the livestock sector, the main supplier of natural fertilizers. As Europe opens its doors to products low-cost that push our agricultural prices down, we tax fertilizers via the CBAMThis increases the production costs of our fa…

30 Apr

2026

FR Speech

How to secure a sustainable future for the EU livestock sector in light of the need to ensure food security, farmers’ resilience and the challenges posed by animal diseases? (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to have a historic day. After decades of doubts, during which the breeding was overwhelmed with all the evils, our young people turned away from our farms and we lost an entire generation of breeders. The decapitalisation of European livestock is growing exponentially and suddenly Europe is waking up. Speeches are changing. The debates…

9 Feb

2026

FR Speech

Amending Regulations on agricultural products as regards market rules and sectoral support measures in the wine sector and for aromatised wine products (debate)

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15 Dec

2025

FR Speech

Amending certain CAP Regulations as regards the conditionality system, types of intervention in the form of direct payment, types of intervention in certain sectors and rural development and annual performance reports, data and interoperability governance, suspensions of payments annual performance clearance and controls and penalties (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, this CAP simplification package is moving in the right direction, with concrete progress. Thank you and congratulations. But let's not veil our face: Agriculture needs stronger policy decisions to give hope to young farmers. Indeed, the future CAP, with a budget cut by 20%, weakens a sector already under pressure. At the same time, the European Union is preparing to …

10 Sep

2025

FR Speech

China’s unjustified decision to impose duties on imports of pork products from the EU and the need to support European farmers and workers (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, for the conflict between Airbus and Boeing, it was already European wines and cheeses that paid the bill. The European Union taxes Chinese electric cars, Beijing responds by targeting pork, cognac and European dairy products. To limit the damage of US tariffs on our cars, the European Union agrees to open its market to American pork, produced with additives bann…

10 Sep

2025

FR Speech

Implementation of EU-US trade deal and the prospect of wider EU trade agreements (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the European Union has knelt against Donald Trump, it is indisputable, but there is no point in crying over the spilled milk. Let's ask ourselves why. And, above all, let's learn the lesson. How can we negotiate on an equal footing with Washington or Beijing when we need them to protect our borders, heat our homes or run our factories? As our strategic dependencies turn…

10 Jul

2025

FR Speech

Post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, investing in the army, yes! But agriculture is our first line of defence. No soldier can fight with an empty stomach. The Commission must maintain a strong agricultural budget and avoid the trap of renationalising the common agricultural policy. It is essential that this policy remains common in order to avoid a weakening of the internal market …

6 May

2025

FR Speech

A unified EU response to unjustified US trade measures and global trade opportunities for the EU (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump's return to the White House is shaking multilateralism, shaking up global trade rules and destabilizing supply chains. Tariffs have become economic weapons. Globalization, often an undeniable source of wealth, is changing. Wealth no longer flows necessarily to the weakest. Environmental dumping is becoming a major competitive asset and…

13 Mar

2025

FR Speech

A Vision for Agriculture and Food (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the vision for agriculture is a turning point for our agriculture. Finally, we put farmers at the heart of the transition. This is an essential paradigm shift to ensure sustainable, competitive and resilient agriculture. Thank you. However, let me stress one crucial point: livestock farming. Our breeders face major challenges, and too many young people give up taking ov…

13 Feb

2025

FR Speech

EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, on several occasions we have sounded the alarm about the impact of the agreement with Mercosur on deforestation, biodiversity loss and health risks. Let us now look at the impact of this agreement on our strategic autonomy. The Draghi report highlighted the effectiveness of China and the United States vis-à-vis Europe. However, these two powers have both decided to p…

20 Jan

2025

FR Speech

Heat record year 2024 - the need for climate action to fight global warming (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, global warming is faster and more intense than previously thought: for example, while bluetongue was believed to be behind us, many calves are now born brainless and blind, causing extremely heavy economic losses for European breeders. This is a very concrete consequence of global warming. On the other hand, on this particular day, Europe must worry about the implementa…

8 Oct

2024

FR Speech

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

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome the European Commission's approach to fair competition and to protecting our car industry. It needs it very much, as we can see in Belgium with the dramatic situation at Audi. This is, I hope, a historic moment: the end of naive Europe. However, I would like to draw your attention to two elements. First, if, as announced, the taxation of …

19 Sep

2024

FR Speech

Droughts and extreme weather events as a threat to local communities and EU agriculture in times of climate change (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, another consequence of global warming is the exponential spread of vector-borne diseases in the livestock sector throughout Europe. For example, today, blue tongue disease serotype three causes tens of thousands of deaths on cattle and sheep farms in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany. This situation, combined with poor cereal yields and …

16 Sep

2024

FR Speech

Outcome of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I support the call on the European Commission to launch a strategic reflection on the role of livestock farming based on sound scientific evidence. Livestock is an essential sector of our sustainable agriculture that we must widely support to make it more attractive, instead of systematically denigrating it. On the other hand, I note that, despite the inconsiste…