What Kathleen spoke about.

9 Jul

2025

EN Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 26 June 2025 (debate)

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Madam President, you know, Ms Montserrat, we have a sort of joke in the S&D Group. Every time you take the floor in the plenary, you will wait one minute, two minutes before you say the name Pedro Sánchez. But let me come to the Council. Dear Presidents of the Commission, of the Council and of the Parliament, when there is a storm outside, people look for shelter, a place where they can be safe an…

8 Jul

2025

NL Speech

Situation in the Middle East (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a thousand. At least. This is the number of victims in Gaza since 26 June 2025, the day on which the Commission and the Council discussed the conflict in the Middle East. Thousands of lives and most of them women and children. With thousands and thousands of lives at stake today due to the hunger and hardship that the Netanyahu government consciously creates and…

19 Jun

2025

EN Speech

Institutional and political implications of the EU enlargement process and global challenges (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, EU enlargement – when it's done right – is a game changer. It brings peace, prosperity, strength across Europe. And today, with Russia tightening its grip in the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries, the stakes are even higher. The momentum is real and we cannot afford to make the same mistakes we made in the past. So no shortcuts on our values. The rule of…

17 Jun

2025

NL Speech

Situation in the Middle East (joint debate)

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Mr President, Madam High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East is disastrous for stability in the region and in the rest of the world. But as always, it is ordinary citizens who pay the price for this brutal violence. At the same time, the gruesome and genocidal offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank continues. The question he…

6 May

2025

EN Speech

2023 and 2024 reports on Serbia (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, from your speech just now, I interpret that you still believe that Serbia will join the European Union one day. You nod, but then it is time to step up, because we are losing Serbia today. The rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights – they are all under threat. And imagine this, today's Serbian students are braver than the European Commission, maybe the whole…

6 May

2025

EN Speech

A unified EU response to unjustified US trade measures and global trade opportunities for the EU (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, colleagues, the US, once the greatest defender of liberal democracy, is rapidly becoming an authoritarian regime. This is a huge challenge, but also an opportunity for the European Union. It is time to show our strength. That is why we should support the WTO and intensify our contacts and trade with like-minded countries like the UK and Canada, and look for new sus…

1 Apr

2025

EN Speech

Crackdown on democracy in Türkiye and the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, today's debate is not only about İmamoğlu. It's about all the people, the journalists, the researchers, the women, the civil society organisations, and the minorities under attack. It's also about the way Europe deals with rising autocrats and dictators – from Hungary to Türkiye, from the United States to Russia. Think about the message we are s…

11 Mar

2025

NL Speech

European Council meetings and European security (joint debate)

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Mr President, Europe was, is and always will be a peace project. But choosing peace and freedom means taking our security into our own hands. That is why the Commission's and the Council's proposals are an important first step. However, a new European peace architecture includes many more 27 Member States that are investing additionally. It also requires coordination and strategy. Safety is so muc…

13 Feb

2025

EN Speech

EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, let me thank M Warborn for his short history lesson. Of course, we agree very much with the fact that geopolitics has changed dramatically in the last five-to-ten years and the EU-Mercosur agreement is, in that light, important. For the S&D, it is important also that, in the next coming months, we will fully scrutinise this deal up to the very detail. We need to make s…

12 Feb

2025

NL Speech

Commission Work Programme 2025 (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, we have all known this for a long time. We've been dependent and naive for too long. Depending on imported raw materials, imported gas and oil from Russia and imported security. We have also been naive – naive, I hope – thinking that we could afford to be and remain dependent. Today, more than ever, that time is over. We have to stand on our own feet. This ambition shou…

11 Feb

2025

NL Speech

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

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Mr President, it is almost unimaginable, but it is indeed three years. Three years of continuous Russian aggression against Ukraine. Three years of deliberate attacks on towns and villages and critical infrastructure, with at least 12 000 civilian casualties and 20 000 kidnapped and deported children. The numbers are terrible. But fortunately, it is also three years of unity and a strong European …

11 Feb

2025

EN Speech

Preparedness for a new trade era: multilateral cooperation or tariffs (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues. I think everybody knows that you don't stop a bully by giving him what he wants. He will only bully you more. Trump's tariffs are a blatant attack on multilateralism, on basic WTO principles and on the transatlantic partnership. No, we are not interested in a trade war. Trade wars only hurt people and businesses, and they push prices up and purchasing pow…

21 Jan

2025

NL Speech

Geopolitical and economic implications for the transatlantic relations under the new Trump administration (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it goes without saying that Donald Trump's second term will put a lot of pressure on transatlantic relations. The impact on our economy, international trade and geopolitics will be enormous. But there's no point in us staring blindly at Trump or Elon Musk. We must not make the mistake of making our actions depend solely on their actions. More than …

25 Nov

2024

EN Speech

The outcome of the G20 Leaders' Summit (debate)

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Madam President, Mr Commissioner, in the world of Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping, the G20 in Rio was presented with a very clear choice: work together for a safer, fairer, rule‑based world, or let inequalities and conflict grow furthermore. For the S&D, the answer is crystal clear – we need a strong, rules‑based international community to fight global inequalities, climate change and rising aggression. …

13 Nov

2024

EN Answer

EU-US relations in light of the outcome of the US presidential elections (debate)

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I do the opposite, because I think we all agree that the impact of the elections in the United States will be huge when it comes to Europe. And my example of Elon Musk is, I think, a very good example. There is no problem. They can, of course, install a department for efficiency. But if you can buy yourself into a job like that, it will have huge impact, also on what will happen on AI in the in th…

13 Nov

2024

EN Speech

EU-US relations in light of the outcome of the US presidential elections (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, what a world we live in today. Even before the new term started, the outlook of the Trump administration paints a dark picture – a dark picture for multilateralism and for international trade, putting hardliners and hawks in key positions, outlining just a single clear message: America first. What better example is there than the choice to appoint Musk of all peop…

17 Sep

2024

EN Speech

Outcome of G20 ministerial meeting in Rio-de-Janeiro and fighting inequality (debate)

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Madam President, I would like to thank Commissioner Dalli for her introduction. The S&D Group welcomes the outcome of the G20 ministerial meeting attended by Commissioner Urpilainen. The fight against hunger and extreme poverty worldwide should remain an absolute priority for the EU, especially since Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, which had severe negative effects on food secu…

17 Sep

2024

NL Speech

War in the Gaza Strip and the situation in the Middle-East (debate)

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Mr President, almost half of us have quite rightly recalled the figures: 40,000 innocent victims, more than 30,000 of whom are children, young people and women. Behind these anonymous figures are human lives and families. Since the beginning of the conflict, a large majority of Parliament has always supported these innocent victims, on both sides. We continue to do so with our call for an immediat…

17 Sep

2024

EN Answer

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

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Dear colleague, it wasn't really a question, but let me assure you that this Parliament, up until the beginning of this illegal war against Ukraine, has been quite united to make sure that we both military, but also in infrastructure and financially support the people of Ukraine, who clearly stated they want to be part of a free Europe and not to be part in the future of a Russian Federation where…

17 Sep

2024

NL Speech

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

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Mr President, I am sure everyone remembers as yesterday how defeated and horrified we were on Thursday morning, 24 February 2022, when war broke out again on European soil. In the aftermath of that day, we stand united and united behind Ukraine. We will never accept that a people chooses freedom and democracy and that they are simply taken away from them. We do not tolerate this in Europe. Our con…

23 Apr

2024

NL Speech

Withdrawal of the Union from the Energy Charter Treaty (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, when I saw the Energy Charter Treaty in the Committee on International Trade at the beginning of this legislature, I was quite surprised. How could it be that we were members of such a club with old methods such as ISDS, of which we had clearly said: “We don’t want that kind of private dispute resolution anymore.” But even worse: It was the beginning of the Green Deal l…

23 Apr

2024

NL Speech

EU’s response to the repeated killing of humanitarian aid workers, journalists and civilians by the Israel Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip (debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, 34 000 lives have already been claimed by the horrific war in Gaza, including 12 000 children, and thousands more are at risk of starvation as Israel continues to block humanitarian aid. And the horror goes on. The lack of action, including from Europe, is unacceptable. What signal do we give to the families of the more than 280 dead who were found in a mass grave last we…

12 Mar

2024

NL Speech

Compulsory licensing for crisis management and amending Regulation (EC) 816/2006 (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, rapporteur, this late in the evening, and it seems like a terribly boring, difficult, technical, legal subject that makes you fall asleep. But actually, nothing less is true. We have experienced a pandemic in this legislature, and I am pleased, Commissioner Breton, that you are sitting here, because I have always - and I say really everywhere I go - had a lot of appreci…

12 Mar

2024

NL Speech

State of play of the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the question is: When will child labour become acceptable? When is the exploitation of workers to be defended? When is this the case when it comes to polluting rivers? Well, apparently the answer to that question today is: ‘Or, when it comes to European companies’ or ‘If it brings us anything’. That's incomprehensible. Some political parties, and unfortunately t…

8 Feb

2024

NL Speech

Multilateral negotiations in view of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, 26-29 February 2024 (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, as we know, the World Trade Organisation, like many other multilateral organisations, is not in the best condition. We have had a reasonably successful MC12, but – in Dutch there is the saying ‘one swallow does not make spring’ – the World Trade Organisation has not yet put it where it should be. I know that there are many references to reforms of the internal system, b…