What Kathleen spoke about.

6 Feb

2024

NL Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meetings, in particular the special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 (debate)

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Protecting Presidents, peace and security in the European Union does not stop at the borders of our Member States, nor does it stop at our external borders. The agreement and support package approved in the Council is therefore crucial, as is broad support in this Parliament. Putin cannot win the war. Especially at a time when things are getting more and more difficult in the United States, it is …

16 Jan

2024

NL Speech

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

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– Mr President, Prime Minister. Europe is at a crossroads – you have already referred to this yourself – and it will be the Belgian Presidency that will shape this. For us it is clear: It will be about a Europe that protects, strengthens prosperity and defends freedom, democracy and human rights. Europe must and will be social. That is why the discussion on the revision of the fiscal rules, the so…

13 Dec

2023

NL Speech

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 (debate)

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Mr President, next February will be two years since Russia's illegal war against Ukraine began. And more than ever, it is important that we in the Council continue to stand collectively behind Ukraine. Everyone here – as you can see – is extremely concerned about the growing lack of support in the United States, but also within our own Council. And I think it is very important that we put the obst…

12 Dec

2023

NL Speech

European Economic Security Strategy (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, High Representative, the world is changing very quickly. The geopolitical challenges are greater than ever and it goes without saying that we need to adapt both economic policy and trade policy to them. So we need to become more assertive, more autonomous and take action. The communication about economic security therefore comes as called and it is extremely important t…

12 Dec

2023

NL Speech

EU-Taiwan trade and investment relations (debate)

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Mr President, it is a bit of an open door, but today's geopolitical challenges are enormous: the war in Ukraine; the conflict between Hamas and Israel, which violates all humanitarian rules; China, which has been violating international trade rules for more than a decade. And at such a time, it is extremely important that we draw the map of multilateralism from within the European Union. In all ar…

18 Oct

2023

EN Speech

A true geopolitical Europe now (topical debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, in the last 10 years, the European Union has come a long way since it has been brutally awakened by the notions of war, the pandemic, and great power politics have also not disappeared. And this has led us to deeply reflect about security, about dependencies and about no longer being naive in the new world. And I think that’s a good thing. And I want…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Question Time with Commissioners - European measures to prevent and to fight the rise of organised crime

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Thank you very much, Mr President, and thank you for this timely discussion against the backdrop of the action plan against drugs and the European Port Alliance. And it’s about ports that I want to raise my question. As you know, ports are key access for high-volume illicit drug imports. And they target mostly the bigger ports like Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg. Can I give you an example? In 2022, n…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Effectiveness of the EU sanctions on Russia (debate)

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Mr President, Mr Commissioner, as you mentioned, since February 2022, the EU has an unprecedented sanctions package in place against Russia. And these sanctions, they mean to change Russia’s behaviour and into war by undermining Russia’s economy. And although there is effect, of course, but we continue to see that the Russian economy is not hit as hard as we would have expected. Our sanctions are …

4 Oct

2023

NL Speech

Need to complete new trade agreements for sustainable growth, competitiveness and the EU’s strategic autonomy (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, from the discussions on TTIP and Mercosur to the crises of recent times – think Brexit, the pandemic, but also the war – they have all had an impact on how we think about trade. They have turned the entire trade policy into a different narrative. They have made an important instrument not only of foreign policy, but also of our domestic policy. And that is particularly …

4 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Energy Charter Treaty: next steps (continuation of debate)

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Madam President, Madam Commissioner, I for an instant thought, ‘they’re suspending to get the Council here.’ Unfortunately. I am going to continue in my mother tongue. Voorzitter, collega’s, noch het oude, noch het gemoderniseerde Energiehandvestverdrag is geschikt voor het beoogde doel. Het is niet in overeenstemming met onze Green Deal, de transitie, enzoverder. We weten dat in dit Parlement eig…

3 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Question Time with Commissioners – EU-China trade relations

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Thank you very much for that answer. You approached very much how difficult it becomes for business to do business in China. But I think we also have to assess, and maybe you cannot answer today, but we have to assess what will be the implication of that counter-espionage law in China on our own autonomous measures, because if we ask our businesses to implement, for instance, due diligence or if i…

3 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Question Time with Commissioners – EU-China trade relations

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Mr Commissioner, when we look at China and our relations, I think it is extremely important that we also have a close eye on the legislative issues within China and that we can see that they have a very broad understanding of the concept of national security. It is not confined, as we do, to conventional concerns such as terrorism and extremism, and it deals with a very large topic such as culture…

3 Oct

2023

NL Speech

Medicine shortages and strategic healthcare autonomy in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, 20 years ago, the EU produced half of its own medicines, and today that is only a quarter. For various medicines that we very much need, we have become 100% dependent on China and India. Today we only have one factory on European soil that produces antibiotics and we almost lost it. Imagine that a superbacteria will emerge tomorrow and that Europe itself will not be abl…

12 Sep

2023

NL Speech

New Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean in the aftermath of the EU-CELAC Summit (debate)

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Mr President, Mr High Representative, let me begin by congratulating you. If you re-establish bi-regional relations with so many representatives after eight years, then it is a success in itself. Moreover – you yourself referred to it, High Representative – it has also produced concrete results. Conversations about raw materials, hydrogen are extremely important. On one subject, however, it was ve…

13 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Public access to documents – annual report for the years 2019-2021 (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, yesterday we voted in this Parliament the report on the lessons learned from the pandemic. And as the Chair of the COVI Committee I have to say I’m very proud of the work that we have conducted. But there is a very important downside on that work. We – but the Commission particularly – failed to deliver on the transparency regarding the EU contracts on vaccines and the …

11 Jul

2023

NL Speech

Greening transport package (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the importance of logistics cannot, of course, be stressed enough. By the way, the pandemic – but also the energy crisis – has proven this once again. I would like to stress very strongly that the future of our logistics sector is on three axes that are also very interconnected. Of course sustainability, greening, the Green Deal – without any doubt – but also digitalisa…

11 Jul

2023

EN Speech

COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and recommendations for the future (debate)

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Mr President, Mr Commissioner, as your COVID Committee Chair I am very proud of the work that we did in the committee during more than a year. We have to acknowledge that neither Europe nor the Member States were prepared for a crisis of the magnitude of COVID—19, and the report in front of you is about having all the building blocks to make Europe more crisis resilient for the future. First, and …

18 Apr

2023

NL Speech

The need for a coherent strategy for EU-China Relations (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this parliamentary term, which is coming to an end, is marked by the Green Deal, by a pandemic and, of course, by the war in Ukraine. All three indicate in their own way that it is very important that we pursue a consistent foreign and trade policy from a geopolitical point of view. We do that when it comes to Ukraine, but unfortunately not when it comes to Chin…

17 Apr

2023

NL Speech

Deforestation Regulation (debate)

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Mr President, the problem is well known. For a very long time we have pursued an overly hypocritical policy, both economically and in our trade policy. At the beginning of this legislature – it seems to have been a while – we put the Mercosur agreement on hold in the Committee on International Trade and in this Parliament. We said: we do not go further with this and we have fought very hard to mak…

18 Jan

2023

NL Speech

Situation of journalists in Morocco, notably the case of Omar Radi

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Mr President, the European Parliament – and let me say, the S&D Group in particular – will continue to raise human rights violations within Europe, worldwide and therefore also in Morocco. The conviction and imprisonment of Omar Radi is not an isolated case. He fits into a row of politically motivated convictions targeting human rights activists, journalists and leaders of the Hirak Rif. Sakharov …

17 Jan

2023

NL Speech

The EU’s response to the appalling attack against civilians in Dnipro : strengthening sanctions against the Putin regime and military support to Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the images of the attacks in Dnipro are the most tragic proof of the ruthlessness of the war that Putin is waging against Ukraine and its people. I agree with Guy Verhofstadt's plea on sanctions. Let me add one more, because the sanctions are there today, they work, but they are not enough. It is incomprehensible and unacceptable that the diamond should spring from the …

5 Oct

2022

NL Speech

Outcome of the Commission’s review of the 15-point action plan on trade and sustainable development (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today I see broad support for the Commission’s reforms and proposals. That seems logical, because they are logical proposals. But that is not the case, because five years ago, when the S&D Group put those proposals on the table, there was still laughter. We're not going to impose sanctions, are we? I'm glad that consensus is growing now, because that's just norm…

5 Oct

2022

NL Speech

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

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Ukraine is a free and independent country. It is a democracy and it is Putin, and Putin alone, who, with his illegal attack on Ukraine, has brought war back to the European continent. The answer, colleagues, and we agree on that, should be: unity, cooperation and solidarity. And yes, we showed them. On the one hand with the extensive support to Ukraine, but also…

9 Jun

2022

NL Speech

A new trade instrument to ban products made by forced labour (debate)

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Mr President, many have pointed to the high rate of forced labour in Europe. This shows that it is a long-standing, persistent problem, which is currently receiving extra attention because of the situation of the Uyghurs in China. I agree that the problem in China is even greater. Of course, this is not only about forced labour, but also about an organised regime that oppresses its people. Some pe…

7 Jun

2022

NL Speech

Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Social Climate Fund - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation - Notification under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) (joint debate – Fit for 55 (part 1))

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Mr President, Mr Vice-President, it is time to make a statement if we want to live up to our climate ambitions. And that is what we want, because we voted for the climate law by an overwhelming majority. So now we have to be ambitious about this Fit for 55. The Commission has proposed a coherent package and it is very important that this Parliament supports and – where possible – further strengthe…