What Tobias spoke about.

7 Oct

2026

EN Speech

Attempts by the ruling party Georgian Dream to ban opposition parties in Georgia

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Mr President, colleagues, how desperate must a government be to ban every political party but its own? How terrified of its own people must it be to beat up peaceful protesters, arrest journalists and use chemical agents against its own population? But this is what we are witnessing in Georgia, where the Georgian Dream regime seems to have entered a bizarre Soviet revival mode: abroad, by dragging…

16 Sep

2026

EN Speech

Urgent need for EU support to Ukraine against Russia’s escalation of its war of aggression (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, Putin is testing us. He's testing us in Ukraine, targeting passenger trains, even those carrying European officials. He's testing us on our own soil, orchestrating sabotage, attacks on infrastructure and even acts of state-sponsored terrorism, like in Leipzig. Not even the most desperate Putin apologists in this House can seriously pretend that all of these are unrelat…

7 Jul

2026

EN Speech

2025 Commission report on Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, I hope you listened well to the naysayers, the defeatists and the Putin powers, including those sitting in this Chamber. You remember what they said just a few weeks ago: they insisted that Ukraine stood no chance, that Kyiv had no cards, that Russia was unstoppable and Europe should appease the aggressor. And yet, look at the situation today. Today, Russia's offensive ha…

19 May

2026

EN Speech

Europe's response to reduced US military deployments in Europe, particularly at its Eastern flank in the light of the latest US decisions (debate)

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Madam President, are the Americans still prepared to defend Europe? We keep asking that question, but colleagues, it is the wrong one. The real question is not whether America is ready to defend Europe, but whether Europe is actually ready to defend Europe. Because, let's be honest, American troop reductions should not come as a surprise. For years, we have known that if NATO is to remain transatl…

28 Apr

2026

EN Speech

Ensuring accountability and justice in response to Russia’s continued attacks against the civilian population in Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, Vladimir Putin is a desperate man. In 2022, he invaded Ukraine thinking he could conquer it in three days. Over 1 500 days later, he is still failing. To call Putin's battlefield progress sluggish would be an insult to a slug, because if a slug set out from the Russian border in 2022, it would by now have traversed not just all of Ukraine and Slovakia, but reached Vien…

10 Mar

2026

EN Speech

Tackling barriers to the single market for defence - Flagship European defence projects of common interest

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Madam President, Commissioner, thank you very much, and thank you for all of those who have really, very clearly and pragmatically contributed to this report, because this report is beyond, and should be beyond, ideology. The first post-war president of the SPD in Germany once said that politics begins with the recognition of reality. Unfortunately, I think some in this House live in a parallel re…

10 Mar

2026

EN Speech

Tackling barriers to the single market for defence - Flagship European defence projects of common interest

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Madam President, 2026 is barely two months old, and yet, even in these few weeks, Europe has already been caught off‑guard several times. First, we were helpless bystanders during Donald Trump's attack on Venezuela. Then we were caught off‑guard by America's threats to annex Greenland. At the same time, we continue to be kept out of the loop during the so-called peace negotiations between Russia, …

10 Mar

2026

EN Speech

Recommendation on enhanced EU-Canada cooperation in the current geopolitical context, including the threats to Canada’s economic stability and sovereignty (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, dear Marta, thank you all for this very positive debate. Sometimes transatlantic relations can seem complicated, tricky and even a little bit uncomfortable. This transatlantic relationship does not: it's straightforward; it's clear; it's in our interest to cooperate. And I thank all the rapporteurs who have really shown qualities that the Canadians…

10 Mar

2026

FR Speech

Recommendation on enhanced EU-Canada cooperation in the current geopolitical context, including the threats to Canada’s economic stability and sovereignty (debate)

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Mr President, 'in a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice – compete with each other for favour, or to combine to create a third path with impact.' Colleagues, these were the words that Mark Carney used to give us accepted the clearest description yet of the challenge that Europe is facing today. And Carney is right. The international order is in rupture. War has retu…

10 Feb

2026

EN Speech

European response to the attacks on the Ukrainian energy system causing a humanitarian crisis (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, I just got back from Kyiv myself. And to all those who still doubt Putin's intention, I can tell you his terror against the population is real. Unable to win the battle on the field, Putin targets the civilian population – women, children, the elderly. At -27°C, Ukrainians are now without heating, without energy, without water. And yet, colleagues, I did not meet a single…

10 Feb

2026

EN Speech

Building a stronger European defence in light of an increasingly volatile international environment (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, for too long we have treated defence as somebody else's problem. Kept it outside of European integration, allowed for fragmentation, weakness and dependency. Today we are paying the price: politically, when we are not at the negotiating table but on the menu; militarily, when it is not just Ukraine, but our own soldiers waiting for equipment that arrives too little and…

17 Dec

2025

EN Speech

The deepening democratic crisis in Georgia (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, imagine a substance that robs you of your breath, that sets your skin on fire, that causes violent coughing and vomiting, and not just for a few minutes or hours, but for days and weeks. A substance so monstrous that when you try to wash it off, it only burns more fiercely. Colleagues, these are the effects of camite, a World War One-era chemical weapon used for trench wa…

26 Nov

2025

EN Speech

EU position on the proposed plan and EU engagement towards a just and lasting peace for Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, I want nothing more than these peace negotiations to succeed. But let's be honest, these 28 points weren't a peace plan, they were Putin's Christmas list to Santa Claus. They asked Ukraine to surrender what Putin has failed to conquer in a decade, and to weaken Ukrainian defences in a way that will only invite future war, future aggression from Russia. And dismantling Ukraine wasn…

25 Nov

2025

EN Speech

European Defence Industry Programme and a framework of measures to ensure the timely availability and supply of defence products (‘EDIP’) (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, honestly, I'm a bit sick of it. I'm sick of watching foreign leaders decide about the future of our continent, while our own leaders learn about it only from the newspapers. In international politics, you have a saying: 'if you aren't at the table, you're on the menu'. Unfortunately, right now it looks like Europe is on the menu. But, colleagues, it doesn't need to be …

22 Oct

2025

EN Speech

The need for a united support to Ukraine and for a just and durable peace concluded on Ukraine's terms, with Europeans and without surrendering to Vladimir Putin's conditions ahead of the foreseen Budapest summit (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, this whole thing felt like Groundhog Day. Another phone call between Putin and Trump, another summit, and yet again, much ado about nothing. Just more strikes on Ukraine, more dead civilians, no Russian willingness for peace, no compromise. Yet even this depressing cycle had a silver lining, and not just that this time our American friends recognised Putin's bad faith bef…

21 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Stepping up funding for Ukraine’s reconstruction and defence: the use of Russian frozen assets (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, for too long, Putin has escalated this war because he believed that time is on his side. For too long, he has mistaken our readiness to negotiate as weakness, and responded only with more escalation, more bombs and more drones of our own cities. Colleagues, this vicious cycle has to end now! We must finally change Putin's calculus about this war and show him that …

8 Oct

2025

EN Answer

United response to recent Russian violations of the EU Member States’ airspace and critical infrastructure (debate)

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It is very clear that the Nord Stream project was a mistake. And it is good that we do not have it anymore. But at the same time I believe in the rule of law, and this is the difference between us and Putin. I trust our courts to prosecute and pursue any sort of crime. The difference is that Putin does not, and Radio Moscow over there does not care about the rule of law. And that makes the differe…

8 Oct

2025

EN Speech

United response to recent Russian violations of the EU Member States’ airspace and critical infrastructure (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, Russian fighter jets are violating NATO airspace, Putin's shadow fleet is sabotaging undersea cables, cyberattacks are shutting down our airports, armies of disinformation bots are interfering in our elections, and swarms of drones are spying on our forces and paralysing our infrastructure. Colleagues, especially those on the far left and the far right: what more …

9 Sep

2025

EN Speech

Ukraine (joint debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, I want to begin by thanking Donald Trump. Seriously. Because this summer he's disproven once and for all a zombie theory that some in this House have been riding like a dead horse and have been riding again today, that we, if only we accommodated Putin, only reached out to him, we could have an easy peace. That's what Trump tried and he failed. He has given everything …

8 Jul

2025

EN Speech

2023 and 2024 reports on Georgia (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, if you are looking for a definition for democratic backsliding, you can forget the dictionary; you can just look at what Georgian Dream has been doing to its own population over the last few years. Not long ago, Georgia was a beacon of hope on the Caucasus, but what we are seeing today are foreign agent laws, rigged elections, brutal crackdowns on peaceful protest…

18 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Media freedom in Georgia, particularly the case of Mzia Amaglobeli

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Mr President, dear colleagues, media freedom is not a luxury, it is a democratic necessity. It shines light where corruption and autocracy hide. And that is precisely why the Georgian authorities have imprisoned one of the country's most respected journalists, Mzia Amaglobeli, for over 150 days now. And Mzia's is not an isolated case. Over 400 Georgians – journalists, opposition figures, but also …

18 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Upcoming NATO summit on 24-26 June 2025 (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, I grew up in a Lutheran vicarage that was shaped by the peace movement. I understand the longing to live in a different time, one where we can speak about disarmament instead of deterrence. I, too, would sometimes prefer to live in a different time. But colleagues, we don't. The post-war leader of the SPD, Kurt Schumacher, once said that politics begins with the r…

16 Jun

2025

EN Speech

The human cost of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the urgent need to end Russian aggression: the situation of illegally detained civilians and prisoners of war, and the continued bombing of civilians (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, on my last trip to Ukraine, I met a remarkable young man named Vlad. Vlad is not a Rambo‑like soldier, but a skinny teenager from Kherson. But still, Putin fears Vlad so much that, alongside 20 000 other Ukrainian children, he had him abducted from his home, sent him into a re-education camp deep inside Russia and submitted him to violence and solitary confinement…

7 May

2025

EN Speech

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

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Madam President, dear colleagues, as the son of a German Lutheran pastor, I'm not usually one to believe in miracles produced in the Vatican. Yet, at Pope Francis's funeral, something of that sort seems to have happened to Donald Trump because, after weeks of echoing Kremlin propaganda, on his flight back from the Vatican, he suddenly tweeted that maybe Putin doesn't want to end the war and that m…

1 Apr

2025

EN Speech

EU Preparedness Union Strategy (debate)

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Madam President, store several dozen litres of drinking water. Keep a 72-hour supply of canned food. Have torches ready and know your nearest shelter. Colleagues, to many, these instructions might sound like a bad joke, especially on April Fool's Day, but unfortunately they're not. They reflect a growing need to prepare for the many threats we are facing today, from Russian aggression to natural d…