What Tobias spoke about.

11

Feb

2025

EN Speech

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Continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s war of aggression (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, as the Trump administration is about to unveil its plans for European security, Vladimir Putin continues to arm Russia for future attacks against NATO territory. And Europeans across all our countries are asking themselves, will Europe rise to the challenge? Or will we once again allow others to determine the future of our continent? Colleagues, for nearly three year…

22

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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

Madam President, dear colleagues, a lot of people have called Trump's re-election a wake‑up call, also in this Chamber. But when it comes to defence, Trump's election is not a wake‑up call; it's the alarm sounding again after us hitting the snooze button over years, again and again. So this is not the time for Europe to merely wake up, but to finally get up and to face up to the new geopolitical r…

21

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Further deterioration of the political situation in Georgia (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, last week we just heard former Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia was brutally attacked by a group of government thugs, including a Georgian Dream so-called MP armed with a gun. Gakharia was left bleeding, with broken bones, and had to be hospitalised. Colleagues, sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Over the past weeks and months, more than 400 Georgians – …

21

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Need for actions to address the continued oppression and fake elections in Belarus (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, imagine a country where a strongman was about to enter his fourth decade of absolute rule while grooming his own son to become his successor. To be honest, to me this sounds much more like a medieval monarchy than 21st century Europe. But here we are. Aleksander Lukashenka, widely known as Europe's last dictator – at least until Putin vied for that title – is now pre…

21

Jan

2025

EN 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, dear colleagues, I wouldn't usually recommend watching Russian television, but in the last couple of days it has offered some revealing insights into Russia's view on the Baltic Sea. Because in talk show after talk show, we can watch Russian commentators discussing which undersea cables and pipelines connect European countries in the Baltic Sea, and also which would cause the greates…

17

Dec

2024

EN Speech

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Crackdown on peaceful pro-European demonstrators in Georgia (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, I, too, just got back from Tbilisi, and what I saw there was honestly bone-chilling: a government that, after rigging the elections, is cracking down on its own population and trying to turn a European democracy into a Belarusian-style authoritarian regime under the shadow of the Kremlin. It is a Russian playbook, all too familiar by now – a playbook of disinformatio…

17

Dec

2024

EN Speech

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

Mr President, dear colleagues, dear High Representative Kaja Kallas, the fall of Bashar al-Assad was one of those rare occasions of unexpected good news these days. Good news because nobody will miss this bloody dictator, and good news because his fate sends a clear message to despots all around the world that suppressing your own people while relying on Vladimir Putin will lend you nowhere but in…

14

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Enhancing Europe’s civilian and defence preparedness and readiness (debate)

Madam President, colleagues, on Tuesday, we marked 1 000 days since Putin's invasion of Ukraine. I still remember very vividly those who, in February 2022, said that Ukraine won't survive for three days, that it is not worth sending weapons, but Ukraine has proven those people wrong. For almost 1 000 days, the Ukrainian David is resisting the Russian Goliath, and why? Because the Ukrainian people …

23

Oct

2024

EN Answer

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Foreign interference and hybrid attacks: the need to strengthen EU resilience and internal security (debate)

Thank you very much for the blue card. And I think that's the absolutely essential question. I think the first thing is to stop being naive and to be honest to our populations, to tell them that this is happening. I have full trust in our societies. I don't want to fight propaganda with counter propaganda. What I want is to tell people what is happening and they can make up their own minds. The Ru…

23

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Foreign interference and hybrid attacks: the need to strengthen EU resilience and internal security (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, we've just heard that disinformation is vague and not really a threat to our society, that we can't measure it, and that we might not be able to see that it's all a fluke made up by Eurocrats. But I just came back from the electoral mission in observing the elections in Moldova, and I can tell you it's real. What we saw there, not just on Election Day, but over th…

8

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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The democratic backsliding and threats to political pluralism in Georgia (debate)

Mr President, foreign agents law to curtail the rights of civil society, an offshore law that favours shady oligarchs and helps them avoid sanctions, a law for family values that curtails the rights of minorities, systematic disinformation sponsored by the Kremlin. What is happening in Georgia right now is not only a dangerous moment of democratic backsliding, but it is a stark reminder of the bro…

17

Sep

2024

EN Answer

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Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States (debate)

Thank you. Yes, thank you very much. The first question, very briefly: I'm a diplomat by training, and I can tell you that diplomacy only works if you have strength. Diplomacy without strength is submission, is capitulation. So I think it's very clear that if we want peace, we have to support Ukraine to achieve peace, and that only works if we put Ukraine into a strong position. And to your second…

17

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, this is my first speech on this floor and I am proud to use these first words here to say loudly and clearly that Europe stands with Ukraine, however long it takes. We stand with it in its fight for freedom over tyranny, for democracy over dictatorship and for its fight for peace over Putin's war. But we are doing this not out of altruism. We are doing this becaus…