What Reinhard spoke about.

22

Nov

2023

EN Question

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Destruction of judicial independence and the persecution of democrats in Hong Kong (debate)

Mr Wallace, just hypothetically assuming that you were right and we were all illegitimate in raising human rights issues, why do you, as the self-declared human rights defender, not take up the cause? Why do you keep silent about the crimes that the CCP commits in China?…

22

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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Destruction of judicial independence and the persecution of democrats in Hong Kong (debate)

President, Commissioner, colleagues, the 25th annual report on recent developments in Hong Kong is a dire, dark, dystopian report. Step by step, all the freedoms guaranteed under the Hong Kong Basic Law are being suffocated in violation of international law, and I join the criticism of colleague Lexmann that the Council has been dodging these developments. We demand on you to speak up. The freedom…

22

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Nikolay Denkov (debate)

Madam President, Prime Minister, Commission, colleagues, I want to thank you, Prime Minister Denkov, for talking to us and with us. You dwelt quite extensively on historic issues and you spoke about the European spirit of Bulgaria that your national hero emphasised, and I’m sure all of us loved it. You quoted JFK, and I like that too. So let me ask you this question: what will Bulgaria do for the …

8

Nov

2023

EN Speech

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EU enlargement policy 2023 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues. It is indeed a historic date. And there are four clear winners on this historic date. There’s Ukraine and Moldova, where the leadership and the people together are moving in our direction. And there are two nations, the people of Georgia and the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have upheld the flame of going into the direction of a European orientati…

18

Oct

2023

EN Speech

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The despicable terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, Israel’s right to defend itself in line with humanitarian and international law and the humanitarian situation in Gaza (debate)

Mr President, I have a point of order. The speaker Vilimsky just said that my group sympathises with Hamas. All speakers of our group have said exactly the opposite. It cannot be allowed that such lies are spread in the European Parliament.…

18

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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The despicable terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, Israel’s right to defend itself in line with humanitarian and international law and the humanitarian situation in Gaza (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Since the end of the Shoah, which will always remain associated with the name of my country, more people of Jewish faith have never been murdered in a single day than on the 7th.  October in the insidious, barbaric massacre of Hamas. In their boundless will to annihilate, these terrorists connect directly with the Nazis. Against this will to annihilate, Israel d…

12

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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India, the situation in Manipur

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, this human rights emergency should not be used as an occasion to insult India or to voice threats with regard to the trade negotiations that were trying to bring to a successful end as soon as possible. This is about specific human rights issues. And I think it is right to say that we have common ground with India in that regard and that we should reinforce,…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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2022 Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, earlier today this House came together in an act of commemoration for the more than 8 000 Muslim men and boys that were killed in the Srebrenica massacre 28 years ago. But in this debate, a Member of Parliament from the ID Group thinks it’s adequate to spew anti-Muslim hatred. What a shame! But the question also goes to ourselves. Do we draw the necessary…

11

Jul

2023

EN Speech

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Relations with the Palestinian Authority (debate)

Madam President, colleagues, Israel is not an apartheid state and it is not like Russia. But some of those that cannot find enough hyperbole in criticising Israel turn quite gingerly when it comes to calling a spade a spade on the Palestinian side. Let me direct your attention to three amendments, namely amendments 45, 47 and 48 that try to deal with the issue of Palestinian terrorism. Several gro…

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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

Mr President, President von der Leyen, HR/VP Borrell, for an organisation that cherishes unity in diversity as we do in the EU, it’s never easy to talk with one voice. All the more grateful we can be that we have heard strong and clear voices recently regarding the EU’s China policy. I want to start by congratulating President von der Leyen for her China speech and for how she conducted her visit …

15

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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Strengthening the EU Defence in the context of the war in Ukraine: speeding up production and deliveries to Ukraine of weapons and ammunitions (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, It is indeed bad that we have to ramp up the capacity of our defence industry. But we do not do this because the EU suddenly became war-torn, but we must do so because Russia has become an aggressor who not only wants to erase Ukraine from the map, but also wants to destroy the entire European peace and security architecture. That's why we have to do it. I wo…

14

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Situation in Georgia (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ironically speaking, I must say, I admire Mick Wallace because he again demonstrated that he will sure as hell always position himself on the side of reactionaries, authoritarians and oppressors. But the Georgian citizens have opted for another choice because they know that the so-called Georgian dream has turned into a Georgian nightmare. The Georgian government is pay…

14

Mar

2023

DE Speech

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Deterioration of democracy in Israel and consequences on the occupied territories (debate)

Mr President! In the previous debate, Israel was twice accused of fascism. I think such words should not fall in the European Parliament, and if they fall, they should be reprimanded.

14

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Question Time (VPC/HR) - Strengthening the Trans-Atlantic ties in an ever challenging multilateral world

Mr Borrell, the cooperation on China is a core issue in transatlantic relations. Recent media excitement has focused on some lack of clarity as to where the EU stands. President von der Leyen has been accused of being overly hawkish. Some people even felt the need to say we should not be a vassal of the United States, while President Michel has been dubbed as the person who tries to avoid confront…

15

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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Access to strategic critical raw materials (debate)

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, it has been said several times that the EU’s supply with critical raw materials is not secure. That’s true. But that’s not news. That was true also ten years ago when we experienced the Senkaku crisis. But what did we do since? We refused to learn our lessons! Today, we’re more dependent on China than we were at that time. That’s not because China controls …

19

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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The Global Gateway Initiative (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, when President von der Leyen, almost a year and a half ago, announced the Global Gateway Initiative, it was welcomed by this House. Because she proposed a plan to revive, to reorient and to enlarge in scope an initiative that had originally been promoted by her predecessor, Juncker, in the waning days of his own presidency. The principles of Global Gate…

17

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Implementation of the common foreign and security policy - annual report 2022 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy - annual report 2022 (debate)

Madam President, Vice-President, HR/VP, David, colleagues, we do live in a new era. For the EU the next seven years will decide whether we will sit at the table or be on the menu. We have to start with realism, though. Overblown dreams of strategic autonomy can be and must be discarded because we learn in the present situation that without the United States’ support, we would not have been able to…

15

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Resumption of the sitting

Madam President, colleagues, the EPP published a press release yesterday that has now been read to the Parliament twice, once by Ms Zovko last night, and just now. In this statement, and I quote, they question ‘the integrity of the foreign policy positions of the EP, as expressed in the urgency resolutions’. This casts a very dark shadow of suspicion and insinuation over the complete human rights …

14

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Chinese government crackdown on the peaceful protests across the People's Republic of China

Madam President, I would like to raise a point of order. My point of order is the request that Ms Zovko should be sanctioned because first, she misused a China debate to enact a hypocritical theatre, charging everybody else as culprits in a criminal gang system. And I also want to have her criticised for not even having the respect for her colleagues to wait until the question to her has been aske…

14

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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Chinese government crackdown on the peaceful protests across the People's Republic of China

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Yesterday, EPP colleague David Leger led the negotiations, the very harmonious and consensual negotiations on the resolution on which we will vote tomorrow. I'm sorry he can't speak here today as a co-author. To the point. I believe that the nationwide protests in China against the so-called Zero-covid policy The Chinese government is an event o…

14

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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EU response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (debate)

Madam President, Executive Vice-President, Minister, the protectionist way in which the United States is pushing the dearly-needed green transition of their own economy hurts our interests. Our friends and partners in the United States are deviating important investment from the European to the US markets, thus effectively promoting European deindustrialisation somewhat, even if unintended. That r…

13

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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ASEAN relations ahead of the EU-ASEAN summit in December 2022 (debate)

Madam President, dear colleagues, the commemorative summit that Brussels is preparing for, with the ASEAN Community, offers an opportunity for reflection of how serious we really are with our strategic partnership. That sounds nice, but how strategic is it really? We learned today from the media that the two sides have not been able to agree on common language about Taiwan or issues around Taiwan.…

13

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Question Time (Commission) - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”

Just one short additional remark. Some Member States, like the Dutch or the Swedish, have invested into creating national China competency centres or different institutions that help creating that competency that we need on all societal levels. And I think it would be helpful if the Commission could put some effort into propagating those shining examples.…

13

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Question Time (Commission) - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”

Thank you, Executive Vice-President, for tackling this important issue here. I believe the protection of strategic infrastructure cannot just be expected from the executive branch of government. We need an all-of-society effort to deal with the integrated multi-actor activities from the Chinese side. In that regard, I think it’s important to raise the awareness of the public. I think the Commissio…

22

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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EU-China relations (debate)

Mr President, Mr Borrell. To say it simply, Mr Borrell, I’m disappointed. I heard from you a lot of generalities, but very little indeed about the reality of EU-China relations. Maybe there isn’t so much to report. What kind of a relationship do we have after all? The April summit, as you said, was a dialogue of the deaf. At the G20, Xi didn’t want to meet with the representatives of the EU. And a…