What Sebastian spoke about.

9 Jul

2026

DE Question

Evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy and follow-up (debate)

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Hello, Mr. Colleague! I was actually about to leave the room, but I just had to stop because you and many others keep having these mock debates. Always seals, cormorants, always the animals are taken as scapegoats. Can you prove it scientifically? Because there are proven numbers, for example from the University of Stockholm, that make the influence of cormorants minimal. It's overfishing, it's cl…

9 Jul

2026

DE Speech

Evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy and follow-up (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Do you really know what tomatoes in Spain have to do with the topic of today's debate? A whole lot. In Europe, we have more and more aquacultures all over our oceans, for example for salmon, and they are very happy to be declared as particularly sustainable. But even these millions of salmon have to eat something, have to have food, and for this to…

7 Jul

2026

DE Speech

2025 Commission report on Moldova (debate)

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Mr President! The Republic of Moldova is on its European path – and that is a good thing, ladies and gentlemen. But this path does not only mean reform on paper; It also means putting European fundamental values into practice. There are still serious human rights problems. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly found violations, including inhumane detention conditions, violence and degr…

16 Jun

2026

DE Speech

An EU future for the Western Balkans (joint debate)

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16 Jun

2026

DE Speech

2025 Commission report on Türkiye (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! It has now been just over a year since I focused on the situation of street dogs in Turkey. Nothing has improved since then – quite the contrary: More and more animals are being killed, killed, poisoned, burned in the most brutal way. Only last year, the government of the city of Istanbul passed a law that street dogs are no longer allowed to be fe…

16 Jun

2026

DE Speech

2025 Commission report on Türkiye (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! It's been a little over a year now that I've been focusing on … Street right here.

21 May

2026

DE Speech

Need for an adaptation of the EU legal framework on sustainable biofuels (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. For most of us in the room, one thing should be clear: Petroleum fuel is not the future. But honestly: In many cases, it cannot be biofuels. For production, we are talking about disappearing forests, about habitats that are being destroyed, about animals and entire animal species that are being displaced, injured or killed because their homeland is being sacrifi…

18 May

2026

DE Speech

The multiannual plan for the Baltic Sea and ways forward (debate)

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The Baltic Sea needs us all, but the approach is not enough for me personally as an animal rights activist, as an environmentalist. Unfortunately, I will vote against it. I'm sorry. We need to deliver more than what has been done. Although I support many of the proposed objectives.…

18 May

2026

DE Answer

The multiannual plan for the Baltic Sea and ways forward (debate)

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Thank you very much, Madam. This is an easy and difficult question at the same time. Basically, I agree that absolutely something needs to change. The way it's been done so far, it can't go on. Something urgently needs to change. And this sham discussion, as well as colleagues on predators such as seals and cormorants, is not a solution. The entire fishery needs to be reformed. The way we deal wit…

18 May

2026

DE Speech

The multiannual plan for the Baltic Sea and ways forward (debate)

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Mr President! Many of my previous speakers were here today to represent the interests of fishermen. They were the mouthpiece of an industry. I stand before you today for the living creatures of the Baltic Sea. I speak for them because their survival is endangered every day. What we experience in the Baltic Sea and other seas is not a natural problem. It is a man-made failure and it is also a polit…

30 Apr

2026

DE Speech

Cali fund – follow up from the COP16 UN Convention on Biodiversity (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Actually, I can only continue where the colleague has just left off. For decades, the economy has exploited nature, exploited animals. And that we will then not be able to straighten it out again, that it will not be free – I think that is clear. Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Biodiversity loss is one of the neglected threats of our time. And this hap…

30 Apr

2026

DE Speech

Women’s entrepreneurship in rural and island areas and outermost regions (debate)

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Madam President, Today we are talking about women in agriculture, women in rural areas. But we must not pretend that femininity only affects people. Many of you may now look somewhat astonished, but a systematic part of agricultural reality is the exploitation of female living beings. Cows, hens, sows – female animals are at the heart of modern factory farming because their bodies are made product…

30 Apr

2026

DE Question

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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Dear Mr. Colleague, I have listened carefully to your speech. During this one-and-a-half minute – I just recalculated – more than 2,000 animals were slaughtered in Germany alone. But my question is: Where did you get this crazy theory that meat should be healthy if WHO and renowned scientists can say something completely different and also prove that meat has been shown to increase the risk of can…

30 Apr

2026

DE 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! Honestly, how many times have I stood at this point and talked about the unbearable suffering of animals in industrial factory farming? But I also talked about the impact on the environment and climate. But this very system that I am talking about is also a place of suffering for people. We are talking about modern slavery, about human trafficking. And how many times when I talk abou…

12 Mar

2026

DE Speech

Ban on the sale of nitrous oxide to the general public (debate)

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Mr President! When we walk through many European cities, we see something that should alarm us all: In front of schools, in parks, on playgrounds, everywhere are empty metal cartridges. At first glance, they seem harmless. But they represent a growing problem: The consumption of nitrous oxide as an intoxicant. This substance is used sensibly in medicine, but today it is increasingly bec…

10 Mar

2026

DE Speech

EU enlargement strategy (debate)

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Mr President! The reports on EU ‑ enlargement rightly assess democracy, the rule of law and the economy. However, it ignores almost entirely key European concerns – animal welfare and environmental protection – in all candidate countries. These issues are not only morally relevant, but also relevant to health, tourism and social development. In Georgia, animal welfare laws are weak, street animals…

12 Feb

2026

DE Speech

Cooperation among enforcement authorities regarding unfair trading practices in the agri-food supply chain (debate)

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18 Dec

2025

DE Speech

30th anniversary of the signing of the Dayton-Paris Peace Agreement (debate)

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16 Dec

2025

DE Speech

Presentation of the EU Cardiovascular Health Plan (debate)

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15 Dec

2025

DE 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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The more helpless a living being, the greater its right to human protection from human cruelty – Theodor Heuss. I mention such a quote here, because here there is an explicit demand for fewer controls. And for me it's not a simplification, for me it's dangerous. Of course, inspections take place in Germany, often only every few years or even more rarely, because capacities at veterinary offices ar…

27 Nov

2025

DE Speech

Fur farming and the placing of farmed fur products on the market (debate)

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26 Nov

2025

DE Question

Fishing opportunities 2026: ensuring the sustainability of fish populations, marine ecosystems and coastal communities

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26 Nov

2025

DE Speech

Fishing opportunities 2026: ensuring the sustainability of fish populations, marine ecosystems and coastal communities

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22 Oct

2025

DE Speech

Key objectives for the CITES COP20 meeting in Uzbekistan (debate)

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Mr President! How can it be that a butterfly that occurs only in one place in the world, namely in the hills around the North Macedonian village of Pletvar, can be legally traded online? The habitat of the Macedonian blueling covers only 1.5 square kilometers. This butterfly is crucial for local biodiversity, and there are only around 1,000 specimens left. While North Macedonia radically bans catc…

21 Oct

2025

DE Speech

Polarisation and increased repression in Serbia, one year after the Novi Sad tragedy (debate)

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Madam President, For many months, citizens and students in Serbia have been protesting against corruption and the increasing autocracy in their country. How does the government react to this? With violence and arrests. Students are still in detention. The situation of the media is also alarming. Reporters Without Borders have documented 76 physical assaults on journalists since January, 34 of them…