What Jeroen spoke about.

12

Jun

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, I think indeed it is more important to have this debate than to have the exact wording of a certain group in the title. So we have looked at a possible compromise and we have come up with ‘Council and Commission statements, preparation of the European Council meeting of 29 and 30 June 2023, in particular in the light of recent steps towards concluding the migration pact’, and I be…

31

May

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, on Monday the President of Poland signed a law creating a commission to investigate Russian interference in Polish politics. At least that’s what he would like us to believe, but the real objective is clear for us all to see, and this is to intimidate political rivals and to interfere in the upcoming elections. This is not a surprise. The ruling party in Poland has consistently un…

10

May

2023

EN Speech

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Fighting cyberbullying of young people across the EU (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, this is a very important debate today, and I’m not asking you to listen to me, but indeed to Jackie Fox, who is with us today and for which we are very grateful that you’re here and for everything you have done. Jackie Fox, the mother of Nicole ‘Coco’ Fox, who was the victim of relentless bullying – both off and online. She was bullied up to a point where she saw no …

10

May

2023

EN Speech

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Externalising asylum applications and making funding to third countries conditional on the implementation of return agreements (topical debate)

Madam President, before I start my intervention, can I just express my surprise a little bit? Because this morning we had a debate on agriculture and the Commission was represented by the financial services Commissioner. Now we have a debate on migration and the agricultural Commissioner is here. And I really don’t see the logic in sending Commissioners to debates on topics that they have no relev…

9

May

2023

EN Speech

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Discharge 2021 (continuation of debate)

Madam President, thank you to all the colleagues for a very long but very interesting debate. Listening to everybody, I can only draw one conclusion really, and that is that we all share a very shared commitment: a commitment to the EU budget, to making sure that the European budget is spent in an appropriate way and making sure that we have the best added value with European funding. I think also…

9

May

2023

EN Speech

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Discharge 2021 (debate)

Madam President, I always believe in ladies first, so I gave Monika the opportunity to speak before me. Now, thank you very much, and I think, really, this discharge procedure is one of the most important procedures we do in the House because in order to maintain citizens trust in the work we do, we need to make sure that the budget is spent correctly. This House has a great responsibility to scru…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)

Mr President, in the first months of this year, more than 30 000 migrants have arrived in Italy – it’s about four times the number compared to the same period last year. In the central Mediterranean route as a whole, there has been an increase in arrivals of over 300%. Now we, as the EPP, have been warning for a long time that we are sleepwalking into a new migration crisis and these numbers prove…

29

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, I do apologise for taking so much of your time but in Malta, an author, Mr Mark Camilleri, published documents showing WhatsApp messages between an MP from the ruling governing party and Yorgen Fenech, who is the alleged mastermind behind the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Now these messages exposed abuse of power, bribery and trading and influence, and this information was kno…

29

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, well, we can vote as you like. On Malta I think there is even more reason maybe to have a debate.

29

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, as we very much indicated, we believe this is a House to have European debates, but we have been inspired. So, if we are going to have a joint debate about rule of law with the Rule of Law report and rule of law in Greece, we believe there are some other issues that could be dealt with in this same debate. The first one is the rule of law in Spain, because the behaviour of this Sp…

29

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, we are not against a debate about the rights of children in rainbow families, because these are important topics to discuss, but we cannot pretend that they are restricted to only one particular Member State. Pretending that they are restricted to only one particular Member State – even though it might be politically convenient for some people here – doesn’t do anything to support…

16

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Lack of actions taken by the Commission in the context of the duty of sincere and loyal cooperation (debate)

Mr President, Madam Commissioner, it’s an honour and mostly a pleasure to chair the Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware, set up a year ago with the important task to investigate one of the biggest threats to free democracies all over the world: the abuse of highly invasive spyware like Pegasus by governments, including in the European Union. F…

15

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Combating organised crime in the EU (debate)

Madam President, organised crime is a major threat to the internal security of the European Union and to the safety of our citizens, and it requires a common European response. More than 70% of criminal networks are active in more than three European countries and they are becoming increasingly more violent. According to Europol, organised crime within the EU has never posed such a major threat to…

15

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Deaths at sea: a common EU response to save lives and action to ensure safe and legal pathways (debate)

Mr President, every death at sea is an unspeakable tragedy. Men, women and children losing their lives in the Mediterranean is truly heartbreaking. And yes, we need, as this debate title suggests, a common EU response. And it starts by breaking the lucrative business model that smugglers have built at the expense of vulnerable people. We need to fight against these ruthless criminals who put hundr…

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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EUCO conclusions: the need for the speedy finalisation of the Road Map (debate)

Madam President, it was about time that the European Council put migration on its agenda. 70 % of Europeans are concerned about migration, and the EPP has been warning for months now that we are sleepwalking into a new crisis, with the numbers being the highest since 2016, so it’s good that everybody seems to have finally woken up. Let me welcome the unity that the European Council showed. Politic…

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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The erosion of the rule of law in Greece: the wiretapping scandal and media freedom (topical debate)

Madam President, this is not the first time we are having this debate and, to be quite frank, I was not convinced about its added value. Unfortunately, so far nothing I’ve seen has changed my mind. This Parliament has a dedicated committee with a specific assignment to look into the abuse of spyware in the whole of the European Union, because this is not an issue of one individual Member State, bu…

13

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, we are very happy to support a debate on last week’s Council conclusions. In fact, we’ve already wanted to propose this last week, but then the socialists were still against it. So better late than never, I guess. Happy to support the debate not under this title, because the level of hypocrisy is simply a bit too high. Have you ever seen the border fences in Spain? Have you ever s…

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)

Mr President, 70% of Europeans are concerned about migration, and rightly so: 330 000 people illegally crossed our borders last year. This is the highest number since 2016 and we are sleepwalking into a new crisis – literally, because our Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, admitted last week that he dozed off on migration. It’s unacceptable. Colleague Azmani, on behalf of the Liberals, referred to …

1

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, you already introduced our request quite well, I would say. We have this very important debate this afternoon. Ideally, we would like to wind it up with a resolution this week, so we can also very clearly express our expectations to the European leaders about what we expect them [inaudible]. I am given to understand that this is not possible in a short Brussels plenary session. S…

18

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate)

Mr President, should humanitarian assistance be criminalised? That’s the question of this debate. No, of course, not. There are many people around the world making sacrifices in order to help people in need, and their work should be applauded. So no, we should not criminalise humanitarian assistance. But should we criminalise crimes? Yes we should. And it really is as simple as that. When crimes a…

18

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Protecting the Rule of Law against impunity in Spain (topical debate)

Madam President, last week we had the Spanish Minister of Justice in the LIBE Committee to discuss the rule of law in Spain. It was very interesting. She said many fascinating things about vaccination strategies, about green hydrogen energy, about organ transplants. She didn’t say much about justice, which you could think is strange for a Minister of Justice. But looking back, it actually makes se…

16

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, Tineke Strik mentioned Greece and Italy, we all seen the court cases in Greece. The accused have been acquitted. The courts have been closed. So, if the Greens want to compliment Greece on the independence of the judiciary there, they can do so in a press release, but not through a debate. We could even do a press release together if you would like. But the EPP is always ready to …

14

Dec

2022

NL Speech

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The Commission’s reports on the situation of journalists and the implications of the rule of law (debate)

Mr President, independent and free media are crucial pillars of a functioning democracy. Journalists are watchdogs of our rule of law. We have to cherish and protect them. However, in practice – including in Europe – journalists are finding it increasingly difficult. I see it in my own country. Journalists are threatened, intimidated, cars are pushed off the road, incendiary bombs are thrown throu…

13

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Suspicions of corruption from Qatar and the broader need for transparency and accountability in the European institutions (debate) (debate)

Mr President, dear colleagues, it’s really hard to express how sad and angry I am here today because the greed of some individuals in this House has cast a dark shadow over all of us. I have to fully agree with the Commissioners: shame on them. The news over the past days looked like a bad Netflix film. Bags of cash raided offices and searched houses. But it’s not the film. It’s the ugly truth of …

23

Nov

2022

NL Speech

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

Mr President, we have been warning for months that we are sleepwalking towards a new migration crisis. Almost 300 000 people have already crossed our external borders illegally this year. This is the highest number since 2016, the crisis year. But the worst thing is that our European asylum policy is still in 2016, despite all the good proposals from the European Commission. But it still doesn't w…