Speeches

Good evening, honourable Stoyanov. In your speech, you said that we should have more production of natural gas in Europe. I wanted to ask you if you knew what is the percentage of the natural gas we consume in Europe today that we are actually able to produce in Europe today?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today I would like to tell you the story of Soizic. She is a home nurse in Torigni-sur-Vire, rural Normandy. Every day, she takes her car to provide medical care at home. At the end of the day, she often walked 120, 150, 180 kilometers. Since Soizic has a small electric car, a Renault Zoé, it saves more than 1,000 euros a year, because driving an electric car costs three times less than driving an oil car. Soizic’s story is the – banal – story of this ongoing ecological revolution: an increase in purchasing power, a better quality of life and clean, European energy for a car manufactured in Europe by a European company. The question now before us is simple: how to make the electric car accessible not only to nurses, but also to carers, who earn less money? It is for them that we must create a European social lease, a simple system, a rent of 50 to 150 euros per month, so that millions of workers in our rural areas can finally access the freedom offered by the electric car.

Madam President, two words: ecology and economy. Two words that are so close, but that many here are still trying to oppose – in particular the extreme right, which wants to copy Donald Trump’s policy. I note with you, my dear friends, the total absence of each of Jordan Bardella's MEPs from the PfE Group in this room at this very moment, which speaks volumes about their interest in our industry. So, ladies and gentlemen, let’s start by agreeing on a simple and basic truth: Europe is low in fossil fuels. We already import 90% of the gas and 97% of the oil we consume. Our Europe is poor in gas and oil, but it is rich in renewable resources: the wind, the sun, geothermal energy, the power of the seas and the central element, namely the innovation and collective intelligence of Europeans. We Europeans of the 21st century know that ecology and economy are two sides of the same coin. So, yes: Sobriety, energy efficiency, renewable energy, repair and recycling are the pillars of our future economic prosperity.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are once again experiencing a historic moment in which part of the European right wishes to make a pact with the far right. Here in the European Parliament, the far right simply wants to remove the Green Deal, as if our European companies should not catch up on the technological gap they have taken over China, for example in terms of electric cars and battery production. Colleagues, we are not catching up by slowing down. This European Green Deal must not be abolished, it must be complemented by a European investment plan for research, innovation and battery production in Europe. On this day, I call on my right-wing friends to remain true to their values and history. You are the heirs of the founding fathers of the European Union. Your founding fathers, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer, know where the alliance between the European right and the far right is heading. They have lived in their flesh what happens when small political calculations take precedence over honor and a sense of duty.

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, we know this: burning oil, burning gas, is aggravating climatic disasters, such as the cyclone that has just devastated the French department of Mayotte. We know less, however, that by making oil and gas the basis of our energy system, we are putting the European economy at the mercy of oil and gas producers and the future of our peoples in the hands of Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin, who uses his gas as a weapon to create inflation in Europe and destroy jobs in our industry. So let's be serious! Vladimir Putin can cut off oil and gas supplies, but he can't stop the wind from blowing in Normandy or the sun from shining in Occitania. Let's be serious! Europe will be an ecological powerhouse, or it will not be. It is by producing energy at home that we will strengthen our economy and defend our freedom.

Madam President, in the face of the horrors experienced by our fellow Mahorese citizens, I miss words. In the face of tragedy, we can cling to two certainties. The first is that climate change kills. This climate change, caused by certain human activities, increases the power of cyclones, such as the one that has just hit the French department of Mayotte. The second certainty is the urgency of seriously adapting to climate change. So tonight I recall a simple conclusion from the scientific work on adaptation to climate change. Stéphane Hallegatte reminds us: a well-organised society, where public services are efficient and resilient, is a society that will be better able to cope with the climate shock. It is up to us to act to build this resilience, which our public water, health and electricity services need, in Mayotte and elsewhere in our European Union.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the European car industry is undergoing a profound transformation. For 20 years, car manufacturers have focused on the production of large and expensive cars. This must stop. Our industry must return to the sources that made its strength: produce cheap small cars for the middle and popular classes of our Europe. Today, we must also switch to the electric motor and do so as soon as possible, in order to protect our fellow citizens from climate change, in order to defend auto workers from Chinese competition, in order to support the purchasing power of our fellow citizens, especially those who live in rural areas where the car is indispensable. More than ever, it is our duty to develop a European industrial policy, to produce in Europe these light and affordable electric cars. Together, let's give back its greatness to the European automotive industry.