Speeches

Thank you, Madame, for accepting the blue card. You have quite rightly spoken about the relevance of new trade agreements in a complicated geopolitical world. And there, of course, the trade agreement with India is very important, but this, as we have just heard, also worries many people. And at Mercosur, it's also the case that many people have concerns. I, as someone who voted in favour of the referral to the court today, but who will probably also vote in favour of Mercosur – do you not think that if you make such processes very determined, that you prejudge the concerns of the people and that you take the concerns away from the people so that they can ultimately live better with the result of such globalising trade agreements?

Thank you, colleague, for accepting my blue card. My question goes more into a certain aspect that you mentioned and less to the file at hand, I have to confess. You talked about the fact that we are constantly attacked in the digital realm, that we are hacked, especially for you, coming from a country that is under direct threat of Russian imperialism and has been always, I think that matters. So, should we also develop offensive capabilities in this area or merely defensive? What would be your opinion?

Thank you, Madame, for accepting the blue card. And simply because I didn’t know it until just now – from the point of view of my student self, who travelled through Europe, I also thank you for the roaming legislation. My question is: You said that we need to think about how we finance this – the grid conversion. This is a correct and important question, which, I say, is repeatedly asked by broad sections of the population when it comes to such larger projects. What would be your thoughts on how exactly we finance this or who exactly finances this?

Madam President, Dear people of Europe, I would like to have two children someday. A boy named Heinz and a girl named Tilda. And one day I'll tell you about that moment. From the moment a U.S. president who dismantles democracy and puts children in cages kidnapped a Venezuelan president who stole elections and turned his people over to starvation. I will tell you that this was the turning point. The moment Europe stood up and said: We defend the rules-based order. Not with deals, not with double standards, but with clear principles. When heads of state commit crimes, there is a competent institution – the International Criminal Court. And that was the moment when the United Nations ensured a peaceful transition to democracy. The moment when we did not hide our own interests behind the claim to give freedom to a people. When Europe stood up for a world where rules count more than violence. Help me build this world. by Tilda. for Heinz.

Madam President, The dismantling of air passenger rights is unspeakable and a mistake. But I would like to go into something else, as Mr Haider said in his speech. He said: ‘the unelected and totally incapable Ursula von der Leyen’. And Madam Vice-President, while I am doing this just as well in a Point of Order I can only say that I find this behaviour and this rhetoric, which is already going on throughout the day and which is becoming more and more common in this Parliament, unspeakable. It is a violation of respect for the Treaties, as required by Rule 10(1) of the Rules of Procedure, to suggest that the President of the Commission would not have democratic legitimacy. And it is a violation of the prohibition on using offensive language, which is in Article 10, point 4, when it is said that this lady is completely incapable. Madam Vice-President, we cannot continue to watch the tone, the manner and the manner in which the dogs are being treated in this Parliament. Please do something!

Mr President, dear colleagues, in the light of the comment of our honoured Vice-President, one hesitates to accuse the President of the United States of anything so vulgar as organised crime, and yet facts are a stubborn thing. For years, 'the Don' informed his allies that protection would henceforth require cash upfront: pay more or face the consequences. Now, having discovered that Greenland is not merely scenery but real estate of considerable strategic value, the logic evolves. The fee is no longer sufficient, the Don now wishes to own the premises. This is not statecraft – it is the classic escalation of a protection racket. In this light, when the authorities are unable to intervene, sensible shopkeepers do not engage in endless negotiation. They install cameras, they reinforce the locks and, discreetly, they place a rifle beneath the counter – not out of aggression, but out of self-respect. Europe remains polite, but Europe will not be shaken down.

Dear colleague, once again, do you think that AI-generated child pornography en masse is just any other reason to regulate? And don't you think that child pornography generated en masse is a good reason to update the system to have new rules? And the same, of course, goes for pictures of women generated without their consent en masse. Is this not a reason to take action, as a Parliament, in light of new technological developments? Or do you deny that?

Thank you, dear colleague. You said, and I quote you here: 'this debate is about everything that the left does not like', which then on the opposite, I think means that you, as a politician from the right, like what this debate is about. So I have to ask the question, do you like AI-generated child pornography? Do you like pictures of women that were generated without their consent? And, as you most likely will say 'no' now to that question, follow up question: do you think framing it that way, in light of the actual topic of this debate, is in accordance with the dignity of this House?

Mr President, dear people of Europe, I join in the expressions of solidarity and condolences for the tragic railway accident in Andalusia. Humanitarian aid is not a secondary gesture, it touches the core of the European idea of solidarity. In a world marked by wars, climate crises and forced displacement, solidarity is not naivety, it is responsibility. Europe exists today because after the destruction we decide to look not only at what separates us, but at what unites us, which is something simple and profound: our humanity. "Help" does not mean weakness, it means recognizing that human dignity has no borders.

I hope, rapporteur, that you are not too sad that it's just you, me and the Commissioner speaking. Dear people of Europe, I want to explicitly align myself with the analysis of our rapporteur, Mr Van Overtveldt, because the independence of central banks is not an abstract economic preference. It's a hard learned lesson from European history. Independent central banks protect price stability. They anchor inflation expectations and they shield monetary policy from short term political pressure. The European Central Bank is a clear example of this principle in practice. Its independence is enshrined in Article 130 TFEU and its primary mandate, price stability, is deliberately narrow. Why? Because once governments can directly influence monetary policy, inflation becomes a political tool and citizens pay the price. So let us be clear. Protecting central bank independence is not technocratic dogma. It is a precondition for economic stability, social cohesion and democratic credibility. And this is why this report matters.

Madam President, dear people of Europe! If you listen to the ESN's contributions in this way, you could almost believe that the EU treaties are a kind of mystical book. You like to call on it without ever opening it. The assertion of Mrs Anderson of the Union lacks the competences here is simply legally wrong. The Critical Medicines Safeguards Framework is clearly and unambiguously based on Article 114 TFEU. Internal market, supply chains, market fragmentation, this is the textbook material of European law, which I can tell you as a studied European lawyer. Article 114(3) explicitly obliges us to maintain a high level of health protection. It's literally in there. And yes, Article 168(7) TFEU is of course respected. No one organizes hospitals here. But drug availability is not a national folklore, but a European market. Perhaps the problem is not with the treaties, but with reading. And to the colleagues from the ESN and the AfD I would like to give a good old German proverb: Reading forms.