What Reinhard spoke about.

14

Sep

2022

DE Speech

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State of the Union (debate)

Madam President, Madam President von der Leyen, I would like to address two issues that you touched upon in your speech. First of all: Global gateway. Will you clarify the unresolved governance issues of the Global Gateway initiative before the end of the year? How many Global Gateway lighthouse projects will be identified by December? How will the cooperation with our connectivity partners Japan …

13

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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The situation in the Strait of Taiwan (debate)

Mr President, High Representative, for the EU Taiwan is a like—minded partner with whom we share good economic relations, but even more importantly, a common interest in defending human rights, the rule of law and democracy. This is why this Parliament has consistently stood in favour of enhancing the EU’s support for Taiwan’s democracy in the context of our own one—China policy. Unilateral change…

13

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Question Time (VPC/HR) The state of play of the war in Ukraine

Mr President, I would like to say to the High Representative that he emphasised just a few minutes ago that obviously Member States have the remit to do defence policy, but still, as European leaders, we also have the responsibility to try to coordinate as best we can common efforts to support Ukraine’s defence of their own sovereignty and their own borders. In the past, many European leaders have…

6

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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The arrest of Cardinal Zen and the trustees of the 612 relief fund in Hong Kong

Madam President, Vice—President, Commissioner, colleagues, the European Parliament has stood, and still stands and will continue to stand with Hong Kong. This Parliament continues to actively show solidarity with Hong Kong democrats against the Chinese Communist oppression. Last week, several members of this House reminded us of the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to the mainland aut…

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 23-24 June 2022, including the meeting with Western Balkan leaders on 23 June - Candidate status of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia (debate)

Mr President, the Council decision this week will be a historic one. It will breathe a new lease on life into the EU’s enlargement strategy. It will present a chance to overcome the long—blocked effort to heal dangerous European divisions and open wounds. This pertains in particular to the countries in the Western Balkans, most notably Albania and North Macedonia, but also others. In doing this, i…

6

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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The EU and the security challenges in the Indo-Pacific (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the EU does indeed have a role to play in the Indo-Pacific, both for economic and geopolitical reasons. And that means we cannot allow ourselves to fall into ambivalence. We have to make clear where we stand. A free and open Indo-Pacific for all: that’s one of our commanding goals. This can be and should be supported by a network of trusted connectivity init…

4

May

2022

DE Speech

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Reports of continued organ harvesting in China

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Forced organ harvesting is an evil human rights violation. Such organ harvesting has occurred in large numbers in China in the past. And even today, there is evidence that China does not strictly adhere to the WHO guidelines on transplant medicine. For this reason, United Nations experts have expressed concern that the accusation that such force…

5

Apr

2022

EN Speech

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Outcome of the EU-China Summit (1 April 2022) (debate)

Madam President, As the Commission and the EEAS announced before, this was not a ‘business as usual’ summit. It was certainly no ‘panda hugging’ event. It was more tense and more controversial than at any time before. I’m happy that the European side did raise all the hot button issues, as you said, High Representative. I want to thank you for that. I also want to thank you for the support that yo…

23

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Debriefing of the European Council meeting in Paris on 10 March 2022 - Preparation of the European Council meeting 24-25 March 2022 (debate)

Madam President, 85 years ago, Nazis and fascists bombed Guernica. Today, Putin’s totalitarian regime destroys Mariupol by bombing civilians there just as cruelly. Or should we compare the siege of Mariupol to the criminal siege of Leningrad in the Second World War? In 1937, democratic Europe did not do enough to help defend the Spanish Republic against Nazi and fascist terror. Are we doing enough…

8

Mar

2022

DE Speech

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The situation in Bosnia Herzegovina (continuation of debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken of a turning point in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Many hypocrites now pretend that they couldn't see it coming. But this turning point has not come upon us like a thief in the night. We could have seen it. We also know that the Western Balkans are also on Putin's strategic agenda. The question is: Are we m…

16

Feb

2022

DE Speech

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EU-Russia relations, European security and Russia’s military threat against Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, The fact that we Europeans must show solidarity with Ukraine has rightly been emphasised here by most speakers. Only the extremists of the left and right make themselves instruments of Russian neo-imperialism. But averting a new intervention in Ukraine is not enough. Putin's senses and aspirations go to the revision of the stability order in Europe. That is w…

15

Feb

2022

DE Speech

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Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2021 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2021 (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to praise this report on the Union's common foreign and security policy, and the fact that my group has not tabled any amendments to it reflects our support. I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mr McAllister, for this. It is the fruit of good cooperation. My praise for the report is not routine. My group has not always voted in favour of these ann…

19

Jan

2022

EN Speech

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Violations of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong

Mr President, congratulations on your election. China’s policy is once more on our agenda, and that will happen quite often in the time that we have ahead of us, because China is pursuing an increasingly aggressive, oppressive policy. I want to thank the democratic political groups in the European Parliament and all the colleagues that contributed to the drafting of this resolution for their effor…

16

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Continuous crackdown on civil society and human rights defenders in Russia: the case of human rights organisation Memorial

Madam President, Memorial was founded and began to thrive in the waning days of the Soviet Union. They have valiantly followed their founding spirit with their anti—Stalinist work until this day. All these years, they have been upholding the values that we all hold dear. In 2009, the European Parliament honoured them by bestowing upon them the prize that carries the name of their co—founder, Sakha…

23

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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

Madam President, a couple of years from today when we look back at this moment, what will we say? Will we say this was the moment when, finally, our hope in trade multilateralism collapsed? Or will we be able to say this was the time when we pulled together and created a new progressive agenda for trade multilateralism? It’s obviously not only in our hands, but it also needs our contribution, and …

11

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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

Mr President, Executive Vice—Presidents, it is good that the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) had a successful start. The first TTC meeting in Pittsburgh, however, does not mark the end of our trade controversies with the US. It doesn’t even mark the beginning of the end, but hopefully it marks the end of a new beginning in sorting out some of the issues. This assessment is borne out by what we …

19

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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EU-Taiwan political relations and cooperation (debate)

Mr President, the overarching goals of the EU’s Taiwan policy have always been stability, peace and respect for the will of the people, and therefore we have consistently opposed unilateral changes of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. But these worthy goals are under assault from the People’s Republic of China. Beijing is undermining peace and stability through aggressive actions in many differ…

5

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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The future of EU-US relations (debate)

Mr President, let me first thank Mr Picula for the report that he drafted and for the great cooperation that he offered. Certainly, when he started his work, the high—flying hopes that we had in the renovation, the resurgence, the reinvigorating of the transatlantic relationship were not tainted with some of the more recent disappointments. But on the other hand we should not forget – and the repo…

14

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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A new EU-China strategy (debate)

Madam President, let me first thank Ms Vautmans for a very good report and for all the efforts at keeping this House united – and indeed we are. We are also self—confident. We don’t believe in defeatism and declinism. We think that if Europe mobilises our positive energies, we can well stand up to the Chinese challenge. But we have to acknowledge – and it’s long past time – that we believed that t…

14

Sep

2021

EN Speech

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Situation in Afghanistan (debate)

Madam President, Mr Borrell, colleagues, extremists from the left and from the right have argued that going to Afghanistan was illegal or selfish or imperialist. I disagree. It was in self-defence against international terrorism, but soon our involvement went astray. We must also confess that. In overshooting self-confidence instead of helping nation-building, we try to impose nation-building, and…

8

Jul

2021

EN Speech

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Hong Kong, notably the case of Apple Daily

Madam President, this is not the first time today that we are discussing Hong Kong in this House. It is important that we do it because we stand with Hong Kong’s fight for their freedoms and for democracy. This is not an internal affair. Upholding human rights is our common global responsibility. Systematically in Hong Kong the freedoms that were once guaranteed for 50 years to come are being dism…