What Manfred spoke about.

29

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, dear colleagues, I think the last half an hour gave us a clear idea and a proof that obviously the European Parliament, in these kind of agenda debates, is becoming more and more a platform for national debates. I think that’s obvious. We feel it all in this room and I want to wish all the best to all contributors to the debate for good headlines for tomorrow in Spain, in France, …

15

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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European Semester for economic policy coordination: Employment and social priorities for 2023 (A9-0051/2023 - Estrella Durá Ferrandis) (vote)

Mr President! I did not want, dear Stéphane, to politicise the vote we have now. I just want to make it clear: The EPP will accept any outcome here in this room. The problem, however, is that your group does not seem to share a common position. That's the problem.…

15

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Conclusions of the Special European Council meeting of 9 February and preparation of the European Council meeting of 23-24 March 2023 (debate)

Madam President of the European Parliament, Commission, Council, dear colleagues, good politics starts, first of all, with a reality check. Eight out of ten global champions are from the US. Apple’s market value alone is bigger than Germany’s entire stock market. The 10 leading companies investing in quantum computing are in the US or in China, not one single company in Europe. And in artificial i…

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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One year of Russia’s invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Madam President Metsola, Madam President von der Leyen, High Representative Borrell, almost one year has passed of unimaginable suffering, bloodshed and destruction for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. 7000 innocent children, women and men have been killed. Many of them died in hospitals, schools and their homes at the hand of Putin’s army. Over 8 million Ukrainians fled their country, their home…

1

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Preparation of the Special European Council meeting of February, in particular the need to develop sustainable solutions in the area of asylum and migration (debate)

Madam President, dear minister, dear President of Commission, good luck in Kyiv and send good signals to our friends there. Full support. Wir können zunächst stolz sein als Europäer, wenn wir uns die großen Krisen der letzten Jahre vergegenwärtigen – den Jugoslawienkrieg zum Beispiel: 800 000 Flüchtlinge willkommen geheißen, den Syrienkrieg: über eine Million Menschen auf europäischem Grund und Bo…

17

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Presentation of the programme of activities of the Swedish Presidency (debate)

Madam President, Vice-President Maroš, it would be great to hear whether you were in the Ice Hotel or in the normal hotel? Okay, thank you for the clarification. Commissioner, dear Prime Minister, dear Ulf, welcome, truly, and we very warmly welcome the Swedish Presidency to the European Parliament. You won the elections last year and formed afterwards a pro-European government, and now your Presi…

14

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 15 December 2022 (debate)

Madam President, Madam President of the Commission, Mr Bek, dear colleagues, today’s subject is the preparation of the European Council. But before we go into this, as an institution, we are all still in shock about the corruption cases. Yesterday, we voted nearly unanimously that Vice—President Kaili cannot speak any more on behalf of the institution. That is how we show that we are ready to act;…

13

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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The recent JHA Council decision on Schengen accession (debate)

Mr President, Mr Council representative, Commissioner! Last week's veto was a mistake. And we all feel the frustration of analyzing this flaw in the discussion today. I would like to express my gratitude for the strong words of our Commissioner, who set the direction of the debate today. The first thing I want to say is respect. Respect for the three states that they have achieved a lot. In recent…

12

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, Ladies and gentlemen, the President has invited us to come to the Conference of Presidents tomorrow to take the first steps and respond to them. I believe what is important now are quick, clear decisions, Parliament's reactions. And that is where we want to try to achieve a broad pro-European, democratic consensus in this approach. This means that the Conference of Presidents will…

12

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Statement by the President

Madam President, dear colleagues, we as the EPP Group are shocked. The corruption charges against one of our highest representatives of this European Parliament has significantly damaged our institution and affected the trust of people in the European Union as a whole. The damage to European democracy is too big to be now used for party political battles. Let us be clear about this. We are, as the…

23

Nov

2022

DE Speech

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The need for a European solution on asylum and migration including search and rescue (debate)

Dear Mr President, dear Vice-President, Commissioner, dear representatives of the Council, dear colleagues! We are sleepwalking into another major migration crisis. 280,000 illegal migrants arrived this year. We are in the midst of Europe's next migration crisis. The figures are at record highs such as in 2015 and 2016. Especially the Western Balkans with 42 000 is a main route. The existing migra…

22

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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Formal sitting – Ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the European Parliament

Madam President of the European Parliament, Commission President, dear prime ministers, 70 years of the European Parliament, our Parliament. I have to share with you my personal experience. When I entered the first time into this institution, into this building, I fell immediately in love with this institution. I experienced a parliament where everybody counts. I was young, 31 years old, and I imm…

19

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 20-21 October 2022 (debate)

Madam President, President von der Leyen, Mr Bek, on Monday morning, Russia attacked Kyiv again with nearly 30 drones, killing innocents, including a pregnant woman. This happened only days after Putin said there would be no more massive strikes on Ukraine. Not a day goes by without terrible news and lies from Putin and his regime. Having all victims in mind, we are not getting tired in saying Put…

17

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The Rule of Law in Malta, five years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia (debate)

Madam President, the brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta five years ago yesterday took away the life of a brave woman and mother. But at the same time, it was also a massive attack against freedom of media and against democracy in Malta. It shocked Europe and the world to the core. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat promised to leave no stone unturned to get to the truth. But his wor…

5

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area (debate)

Madam President, Schengen is a great success story for Europe. It has broken down barriers, brought European citizens closer together and strengthened our European economy. With Bulgaria and Romania, we have two EU Member States who fulfil all conditions to join this area. They are ready for Schengen, but they are still waiting for the Council’s green light. Since 2011 – 11 years – there has been …

5

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Russia’s escalation of its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, Madam President of the Commission, High Representative, Minister, dear colleagues, more than 220 days have passed since Putin started his invasion in Ukraine on 24 February – more than 220 days of tremendous suffering, bloodshed and destruction of Ukraine, people and the whole country. By the end of last month, we have seen 13 million people fleeing Ukraine, crossing the borders t…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Illegal detention of the opposition leader in Bulgaria (topical debate)

Mr President, on the night of 17 March 2022, Boyko Borisov, the leader of the Bulgarian opposition party GERB, a member of the EPP family, was detained for a whole day by the Bulgarian police. Without a former judge, without a prosecutor involved and without any legal basis. You have to name this act for what it really was: it was an illegal breach of the fundamental principle of the rule of law i…

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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State of the Union (debate)

Madam President, I also want to thank Ursula von der Leyen for the contribution, for the great speech and a great discussion today. There is a broad consensus about now activating going further social means, also creating jobs, that’s why I think we have a lot in common that we want to work on. But I want especially to thank Ska Keller because she was presenting to the EPP the flowers that we are …

14

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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State of the Union (debate)

Madam President of the European Parliament, Madam President of the European Commission, Madam Zelenska, Czech Presidency, dear colleagues, last week the hemicycle in Brussels was full of young people. We organised this EPP Group 4 Youth week at the beginning of the autumn session and during the discussion, Eva Maydell, a young colleague of ours, spoke about a moving encounter during summer. She wa…

6

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Presentation of the programme of activities of the Czech Presidency (continuation of debate)

Madam President, I wish to welcome Prime Minister Petr Fiala and to thank you, Mr Fiala, so much for the presentation of the ideas of the Czech Presidency. The Czech Presidency comes at the right moment. Thanks to you Europe is, first of all, back in the Czech Government. As soon as you took office you appointed a Minister for European Affairs, sitting there next to you, Mr Bek. For the first time…

5

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis (debate)

Madam President, on 7 July 2019, almost exactly three years ago, the Prime Minister won the Greek elections in a landslide victory. The Greek people sent a strong message of support and trust to you, Prime Minister, and to Nea Demokratia to steer the future of Greece and turn a page on the failed policies of Alexis Tsipras and Syriza. When you came into office, Greece was in bad shape, I think tha…

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković (debate)

Madam President, Vice-Presidents Šuica and Šefčovič, dear Prime Minister, dear Andrej, welcome back to the European Parliament, as a former colleague. It’s great to have you here. A second term now as Prime Minister is a strong mandate from your citizens. You are leading Croatia and you are also leading the European debate. When I have in mind that Croatia is the youngest member inside of the Euro…

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Voting time

Madam President, dear colleagues, the substance of today’s vote – I think you all are aware – is to try to give an answer to the biggest challenge of our generation and not allow ourselves to play one crisis against the other, with the war, as the climate thing cannot wait. I thank everyone for their readiness for the compromise today, even if we had to tell Frans Timmermans that we changed a lot …

8

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (A9-0162/2022 - Peter Liese) (vote)

Madam President, Philippe, I really respect you very much, you know this. I respect everyone. But sorry, ‘pro—European majorities in this Chamber’ does not automatically mean the Green and Socialist majority in this Chamber. Let me be clear on this. (Loud applause) That’s why we voted today on content and there was a majority in this Chamber, clearly expressed by the Chamber. I tell you that at th…

8

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Conclusions of the special European Council meeting of 30-31 May 2022 (debate)

Madam President, yes, let’s assess the last Council meeting. First of all, about sanctions, defence, all the other initiatives, I think the outcome is good. We took a step forward. Europe is on a good path. But I ask myself, frankly speaking, when we reflect about the last Council meeting, why nobody mentioned until now the name of Viktor Orbán. Because when people saw what happened in the last Eu…