What Kathleen spoke about.

24

Mar

2022

NL Speech

Watch

Update from the Commission and Council on the state of play of the Energy Charter Treaty modernisation exercise (debate)

Mr President, many have, of course, already referred to it: The world has fundamentally changed. Today it is painfully clear how bad our dependence on fossil fuel is. The focus today is of course on Russian gas. But it would be a fundamental mistake to change one dependency into another dependency on the same fossil fuels. Because anyway, fossil fuels are both polluting and expensive, and come fro…

10

Mar

2022

NL Speech

Watch

Transparency and administrative standards - the treatment of public access requests based on Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, let me first say that it may be clear in the middle of this debate that a large majority in Parliament does not follow the Commission's interpretation of the application of transparency, that we are looking at it in a completely different way and that it must be clear that we want to see a change in that. And I want to explain the case that is before us, because it show…

9

Mar

2022

EN Speech

Watch

Debate with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas - The EU's role in a changing world and the security situation of Europe following the Russian aggression and invasion of Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, Prime Minister, dear Kaja, can I also first give my deep respect and appreciation for what you do. You come from a very small country, and in this case a very vulnerable country, and you take sound political leadership in the EU. Thank you very much for that. Collega's, de eerste fase van deze oorlog pakt eigenlijk slecht uit voor Vladimir Poetin. Het Oekraïense volk is moediger d…

1

Mar

2022

EN Speech

Watch

Russian aggression against Ukraine (continuation of debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, today we feel sadness, anger for sure, but also pride – pride in the unity of the European response to Putin’s war crimes. Could you imagine just for one second that we did not have the European Union today? Then we would be divided, and divided we cannot have any response to Putin. But united, as we stand today, we have Ukraine’s back. Mr Zelenskyy, I know you have …

15

Feb

2022

NL Speech

Watch

EU-Africa relations (debate)

Mr President, when the European Union decided two years ago to organise a European summit with Africa and on Africa, it was in an atmosphere of positivity and optimism. We had a plan. We wanted to show that Africa is our most important partner, and we also wanted to show that we wanted to work with Africa on an equal footing. As we know, that summit has not gone through the pandemic, it has been p…

15

Dec

2021

NL Speech

Watch

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 16-17 December 2021 - The EU's response to the global resurgence of Covid-19 and the new emerging Covid variants (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, today we are in the fourth wave – the fourth corona wave – and with omikron on our path, we can look forward, and I honestly say that a bit cynically, to a fifth wave, to a sixth wave. And the Commission is happy to say that it is doing well, also internationally, with all exports and donations, but the real truth is that three quarters of the vaccines produced go to th…

14

Dec

2021

NL Speech

Watch

Implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification scheme (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, no one wants a diamond on his or her finger with blood on it. Today diamond mining is all too often linked to the financing of rebel groups and civil wars in Africa. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was established in 2003 to stop the trade in conflict diamonds. And successfully, because today less than 1% of the trade in rough diamonds is considered a conflic…

24

Nov

2021

NL Speech

Watch

The EU's role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic: how to vaccinate the world (topical debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the rich countries have already given more inhabitants a third shot than the poor countries a first. That is not only unjust, but also very stupid because that indeed means that, as Mohammed said, we just have to wait for the next variant. In fact, there is an additional injustice. The vaccine that works best in the world today relies on American and European mRNA techn…

24

Nov

2021

NL Speech

Watch

Outcome of the COP26 in Glasgow (debate)

Mr President, it is true. After the COP in Glasgow, we can say that the one-and-a-half degree has been kept above water and is still the global ambition. But at the same time, we have to admit that we still have a lot of work to do in terms of the commitments, the measures and the bold policies that should have been agreed. This means – and this is an important message I want to give today – that …

23

Nov

2021

NL Speech

Watch

Multilateral negotiations in view of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva, 30 November to 3 December 2021 (debate)

Mr President, we all know that multilateralism is in trouble. We also saw that at the COP in Glasgow. It is difficult to make multilateral agreements and so we need success. Success in terms of sustainability through the fisheries agreement, and success in terms of health. I listened carefully to Mr Simon. Last week it was announced that Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna together made $34 billion in pr…

11

Nov

2021

NL Speech

Watch

The outcome of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) (debate)

Mr President, I think we all agree that after Trump, we should work with the current Biden administration on a positive agenda for the future. This means not only solving problems, for example in the area of steel and aluminium, but also establishing a positive agenda with issues that are important for our future. The EU-US Trade and Technology Council is therefore very important. We all know that…

7

Oct

2021

EN Speech

Watch

The case of Paul Rusesabagina in Rwanda

Mr President, today we are voting, for the second time in less than a year, on a resolution on the case of Paul Rusesabagina. In the first resolution, last February, the European Parliament denounced his abduction and subsequent torture. We called for an international investigation into his transfer and arrest and for Rwanda to guarantee that Mr Rusesabagina would receive a fair trial. Well collea…

14

Sep

2021

NL Speech

Watch

A new EU-China strategy (debate)

Mr President, first of all a big congratulations to Hilde for this report. She has succeeded in expressing a clear position with a broad majority. That's fantastic. At the same time, we must also admit that we may be a little late with this clear position. For too long, we've been very naive. We have long thought that China would democratize and play by the rules. Nothing is less true. That is why…

14

Sep

2021

NL Speech

Watch

Presentation of the Fit for 55 package after the publication of the IPCC report (debate)

Mr President, the ‘Fit for 55’ package is the first, truly concrete proposal following the Green Deal and the Climate Law. This proposal proposes a clear and coherent package with a view to achieving the objective. I would therefore like to express my thanks to the Commission for this. I would also like to stress that Parliament has a crushing responsibility to support this package, to strengthen …

8

Jul

2021

NL Speech

Watch

Hong Kong, notably the case of Apple Daily

Mr President, I think we are all very appalled at what is happening in Hong Kong. There is nothing left of the democratic regime that Hong Kong once was. Under the guise of national security, the rights of the population are increasingly restricted, with the de facto lifting of press freedom as the absolute, sad low. No more democracy. And we in the EU have allowed that to happen. We stood by, we …

8

Jul

2021

NL Speech

Watch

The case of Ahmadreza Djalali in Iran

Mr President, Commissioner, the harsh truth is that if we do nothing, Dr Djalali will die, either from incessant torture, hunger, hardship or from execution by the Iranian regime. And that is unacceptable! Mr Djalali is a citizen of the European Union. He is connected to Belgian, Swedish and Italian society, he is a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and his safety is our responsibility.…

8

Jul

2021

NL Speech

Watch

Labour rights in Bangladesh (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, you will not be surprised that respect for labour rights and ILO conventions are essential for my group. It has already been mentioned by many: There is still a lot of work to be done in Bangladesh. Cooperation is ongoing with the ILO and the European Commission. Commissioner, you have already said a number of things about the national action plan. But I think it must b…

7

Jul

2021

NL Speech

Watch

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 24-25 June 2021 (debate)

Mr President, hopefully we all agree that cooperation and solidarity form the basis of the European project. These are exactly the values we need to tackle the pandemic globally. We won't be safe until everyone is safe. How many colleagues have said that? However, the Commission and the Council do not seem to be taking any action in this area and the Council conclusions also appear to lack the nec…

5

Jul

2021

EN Speech

Watch

Trade-related aspects and implications of COVID-19 (short presentation)

– Madam President, when the world recovered in the last century from two world wars it became clear that international trade policy would become the centre of recovery and it brought us a full century of prosperity. Today, we are recovering from a pandemic and are heading towards the same direction, putting trade at the centre of recovery. But we have to take care that we do it in a different way,…