What Helmut spoke about.

25 Apr

2024

DE Speech

Pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear absent Council, ladies and gentlemen! We directly elected representatives of the people clearly stated in February: The EU must be able to join in order for enlargement to generate added value for all citizens and with all. My urgent question to you, the Commission and the Council is therefore: What is the roadmap for the next five years to implement this task –…

24 Apr

2024

DE Speech

The European Parliament's right of inquiry (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner McGuinness, Secretary of State! Article 14(1) of the Treaty on European Union is very clear: Parliament performs ‘political control tasks’. When the Treaty of Lisbon came into force, I was a Member of the European Parliament for just a few months. Since then, we have tried – contractually, and I believe, also the right and condemn the legislative obligation – to adopt a …

24 Apr

2024

DE Speech

The sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive - Anti-Money Laundering Regulation - Establishing the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (joint debate - Anti-money laundering)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Almost eight years ago, investigative journalists published the so-called Panama Papers. That was shortly after the shocks of the global financial crisis. They revealed how extremely wealthy people use complicated ownership networks or even insurmountable corporate structures to protect their money from public control, to avoid taxes or even to lau…

23 Apr

2024

DE Speech

Establishing the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner! Despite the long-running accession negotiations, the countries of the so-called Western Balkans had fallen out of sight and needed social debates. Let me therefore turn to the outcome of the last summit of the 13th century. In December, I would like to underline again: a clear commitment to accession and, above all, to speeding up the lengthy process while ensuring the …

22 Apr

2024

DE Speech

Prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market (debate)

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Madam President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen. It has already been emphasized how much good this law can bring. I like to join in principle. Tomorrow's vote is truly a historic one for human rights and links political and economic responsibility, similar to supply chain legislation. We do not want products on the internal market that are produced from forced labour, neither in the EU no…

22 Apr

2024

EN Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, dear colleagues, you all know that on 6 April, Mexico’s diplomatic mission in Ecuador has been raided by police forces violating international law. This violation of international law has been firmly condemned by the United Nations Secretary-General, and has led to a crisis in the bilateral relationship between the two countries. Furthermore, it aggravates dramatically the situati…

12 Mar

2024

DE Speech

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

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear rapporteur! ‘The opposite of good is well-intentioned.’ This quote sums up the Commission’s approach to compulsory EU-wide licences. Of course, it is important that this instrument comes and harmonises the fragmented system in the EU – as far as the good intentions are concerned. But sticking to the ban on exports makes it clear that the wrong conclusions have appa…

12 Mar

2024

DE Speech

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

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Madam President, Madam Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Let's not fool ourselves: The world is looking at us. Can we make it clear and binding for our companies to respect fundamental workers’ and children’s rights, to respect habitats worldwide and even to create the same rules of the game – for all – as companies demand? But after two years of deliberations, negotiations, debates an…

8 Feb

2024

DE 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, ladies and gentlemen! The agenda of the ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi is long – the revival of the dispute settlement mechanism, the second part of the fisheries agreement or the extension of TRIPS, to name but a few. But we must realize that the big, unanswered question is the WTO reform. How can this institution become fairer and more sustainable? Two-thirds of …

7 Feb

2024

DE Speech

New wave of mass arrests in Belarus of opposition activists and their family members

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! On February 25, the citizens of Belarus will vote. On this day, the Lukashenko administration has placed both parliamentary and local elections. It is already clear: There can be no question of free elections. After all, it is clear to everyone what characterizes the political reality in the country: the prohibition and dissolution of all oppositio…

6 Feb

2024

DE Speech

State of play of the implementation of the Global Gateway and its governance two years after its launch (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Whether it is about expanding the electricity grid in Madagascar and its rural areas or improving the supply of drinking water in Ecuador: It is important for the European Union to follow words with the finally real deeds. Let's not fool ourselves: According to UNCTAD, there is an annual investment gap of $4 trillion in developing countries. The €3…

16 Jan

2024

DE Speech

Implementation of the Treaty provisions on national parliaments - Implementation of the Treaty provisions on EU citizenship (joint debate – Implementation of the Treaty provisions)

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Mr President, Mr Vice-President! First of all, I would like to thank both rapporteurs and all shadow rapporteurs for good reports, the importance of which should not be underestimated for the future of European citizenship. However, I would like to emphasise, in particular with regard to the report on European citizenship, that with this report we are confronting a key challenge of European policy…

13 Dec

2023

DE Speech

The unknown status of Mikalai Statkevich and the recent attacks on Belarusian politicians’ and activists’ family members

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Madam President, Commissioner! If human rights and political freedoms are disregarded and virtually abolished in our neighbouring country, we as the European Parliament cannot look the other way. We rightly denounce the persecution, ill-treatment, imprisonment or expulsion of critical voices, such as Mikalaj Statkevich's, the suppression of all independent social or political forces, the attempt t…

12 Dec

2023

DE Speech

EU-US relations (debate)

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Mr President! The United States is undoubtedly a central partner of the European Union, a partner with whom we have been united for decades, indeed for centuries. But the world beyond this partnership is changing rapidly. And we all know it: The challenges facing the world community are colossal. My appeal is therefore: Let's rethink transatlantic relations. Not in contrast to the new, to the comi…

11 Dec

2023

DE Speech

The European Elections 2024 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! What Parliament insists on in this report is anything but a revolution. A uniform electoral procedure, a common election date – these objectives were already formulated in Article 138 of the Treaty establishing the EEC for the then Parliamentary Assembly of the Community. More than 60 years later, we seem to be on the spot when it comes to harmo…

21 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties (debate)

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Mr President, Vice-President, Council, having listened carefully to this debate, I would say that I am proud to be part of this report’s working structures and team in this House. That means that I remind all of us, all of you, that the founding document of the integration process was and is the manifesto of Ventotene. When it had been written in the darkest times of the European history, when Spi…

21 Nov

2023

DE Speech

Proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties (debate)

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Mr President, assembled Vice-Presidents, dear Presidency of the Council! First of all, I would like to thank my four co-rapporteurs and all the staff who have worked on this report as assistants, as staff of the secretariats of the Group, the committee secretariats. But I would also like to say thank you to Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, who brought ECR's perspectives to the work, but who did not want or c…

21 Nov

2023

DE Speech

EU/New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (debate)

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Madam President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! My group is critical of this agreement, and farmers in Europe are also concerned, do not feel sufficiently prepared and supported by politics. But without hiding the risks and downsides, in my view, this is also about the question of how to make international trade in goods and services fairer, what standards we want to set for modern trade…

9 Nov

2023

DE Speech

Outcome of the EU-US summit (debate)

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Mr President, Madam Vice-President, Madam Council representative! In 1985, the EU's trade dispute with the United States began. The recent EU-US summit also failed to bridge the main differences. In the dispute over protective tariffs on aluminium and steel, no agreement is in sight. The conclusion of the critical raw materials agreement, which is so important for Commission President von der Leye…

18 Oct

2023

DE Speech

Outcome of the SDGs Summit (18-19 September 2023, New York) – transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030 and beyond (debate)

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Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! We all know: The mid-term review of the Sustainable Development Agenda is staggering. 85 percent, that is the proportion of the targets that we are not likely to achieve by 2030. We are even falling behind on key issues such as the fight against hunger and extreme poverty, climate protection and species protection. Sure, the COVID-19 pan…

18 Oct

2023

DE Speech

A true geopolitical Europe now (topical debate)

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Madam President, Mr High Representative! We now have a geopolitical commission since 2019, and I think we should actually put the debate upside down. We talk about apples, pears, we throw foreign policy interests and world economic issues into one pot. But what do we really want to talk about? How do we want to shape geopolitics and geoeconomics of a European Union that still sees itself today as …

4 Oct

2023

DE Speech

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

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Madam President, Commissioner! It seems to be an institutional truism that FTAs ensure sustainable growth, competitiveness and the EU's strategic autonomy. This is stated in the Commission's communication of 27 September. It highlights, among other things, the European Union's commitment to a rules-based trading system and the reform of the WTO. But let's be honest: What we need to realise is that…

4 Oct

2023

DE Speech

Energy Charter Treaty: next steps (continuation of debate)

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Madam President, Not quite the Irish conclusion to this debate. I would like to reiterate: The coordinated withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty is an overdue step – more must follow. That is why I can only underline: Misinvestments in fossil energy production do not deserve protection status. A next, mandatory step must therefore be to challenge the ‘sunset clause’ in order to finally cancel …

3 Oct

2023

DE Speech

Taking stock of Moldova's path to the EU (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Presidency of the Council! Moldova has been an acceding country to the European Union for almost 16 months now, and it is important that we talk today about the path that still needs to be taken. The challenges facing the country and its citizens are huge and enormous. Families are struggling to live their daily lives, and yet the country has taken in countless families…

2 Oct

2023

DE Speech

Economic coercion by third countries (debate)

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Madam President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! The trade policy instrument against coercive measures is undoubtedly important. But it also shows clearly – and here I have to pour water into the wine – how the Council and the Commission tie trade policy and foreign policy together. I am critical of this geopolitical and geoeconomic interconnection, because it weakens Parliament through t…