What Herbert spoke about.

21

May

2026

DE Speech

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Need for an adaptation of the EU legal framework on sustainable biofuels (debate)

Mr President! Commissioner! Colleagues! Plate, trough, tank – this debate has been too one-sided in the past. As if one would completely exclude the other. But if we believe in innovation and progress, we also need to see if there can be an integrated use of these three pillars. Others are doing it. What's wrong with first extracting bioethanol from millet, for example, and then feeding it? And I …

30

Apr

2026

DE Speech

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How to secure a sustainable future for the EU livestock sector in light of the need to ensure food security, farmers’ resilience and the challenges posed by animal diseases? (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Animal breeding is not an invention of our time. Humans have begun to breed animals even before they have farmed. But, of course, the challenges of our time are different: It is about mass animal husbandry, it is about high stock densities, also about justified animal welfare claims, animal diseases. But animal husbandry is also part of the circular economy. Ani…

29

Apr

2026

DE Speech

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EU strategy in response to the ongoing Middle East crisis, its implications on energy prices and the availability of fertilizers (joint debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. Dependencies always show up when delivery routes no longer work or bottlenecks lead to price explosions. This is precisely what is currently happening with mineral fertilisers, especially nitrogen fertilisers. Nitrogen fertilizers are ultimately nothing more than concentrated energy. And they come from places where energy costs little, especially from the Gul…

28

Apr

2026

DE Speech

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Interim report on the proposal for the multiannual financial framework for 2028-2034 (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, there are new challenges for the EU at a challenging time. However, this cannot lead us to starve financially to the policies that are entrusted to us by the Member States and for which we are ultimately responsible: regional policy, the common agricultural policy. And we must also not do this in favour of policies that we may then finance, but where …

9

Feb

2026

DE Speech

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Amending Regulations on agricultural products as regards market rules and sectoral support measures in the wine sector and for aromatised wine products (debate)

12

Nov

2025

DE Speech

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The new 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework: architecture and governance (debate)

Mr President! Commissioner! Colleagues! The European Union can, of course, evolve if it takes on new tasks, and then it must also finance these new tasks. But I remain convinced: The Union will not develop further if successful joint tasks are neglected or even thrown overboard in return. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is happening with this proposal in areas such as agriculture, regional pol…

7

Oct

2025

DE Speech

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Common agricultural policy (joint debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner! The regulation on the simplification of the CAP takes up an excessive bureaucracy which we have experienced in recent years and which, unfortunately, we have created ourselves in this House. Simplification does not mean deregulation. Simplification means reducing bureaucracy where it only becomes a burden, only generates more costs and no added val…

10

Jul

2025

DE Speech

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Post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! In a few days, we will have on the table a proposal for the CAP and its financing by 2035, and I have the impression that the signs are not the best, to say the least. It is obvious that the policies that have hitherto been at the heart of the European Union – agriculture, but also cohesion, cross-border cooperation and others – are planned to b…

9

Jul

2025

DE Speech

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The EU’s post-2027 long-term budget: Parliament’s expectations ahead of the Commission’s proposal (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The European Union, and therefore this Parliament, has grown over decades through one principle: The Member States have given us competences that we exercise, where we create laws, rules, and which we then finance. This applies to agriculture, cohesion, cross-border cooperation, research and much more. If I can now trust the signs, then the Comm…

6

May

2025

DE Speech

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A revamped long-term budget for the Union in a changing world (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. I am convinced that we are at a historical crossroads. The balances in the world are rebalancing, and the next few years will show whether we, the European Union, emerge from this development as a strong partner or as a meaningless partner. But if we want to remain significant, we need not only lip service, but also concrete facts about the financing of the Euro…

13

Mar

2025

DE Speech

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A Vision for Agriculture and Food (debate)

Mr President, dear Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Farmers are the ones who feed us every day. This is actually logical – we may have forgotten something in the decades of abundance. The aim of a sensible agricultural policy must be that farmers, together with our food industry, try every day to produce sustainably high-quality food for us, for these 450 million Europeans. I am grateful to you…

13

Feb

2025

DE Speech

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EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (debate)

Madam President, Colleagues! With the Mercosur agreement, the EU is planning for the first time a trade agreement with a partner whose primary interest is, of course, the export of agricultural goods. Not that we wouldn't shop there today: We buy food from Brazil by EUR 17 billion a year and from Argentina by EUR 5 billion, which means that they are already important trading partners. But, and thi…

22

Jan

2025

DE Speech

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EU financing through the LIFE programme of entities lobbying EU institutions and the need for transparency (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, NGOs are important in a democracy, and of course NGOs can also be supported with public money and should be supported with public money. Of course, they also have to be transparent, otherwise they lose their own credibility. Let me give you an example: For several years there have been NGOs that have declared the protection of the wolf to be the ma…

19

Dec

2024

DE Speech

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Commission’s plans to include the revision of the outstanding proposals on animal welfare in its work plan for 2025 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I and my group support animal welfare in the European Union. I believe that animal husbandry is associated with an ethical responsibility for animals, and that is what society and consumers can demand. But I also believe that farmers take care of their animals for the most part. Anyone who does not do so should also be punished according to the …

18

Dec

2024

DE Speech

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Challenges facing EU farmers and agricultural workers: improving working conditions, including their mental well-being (debate)

Mr President! Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Work in agriculture is exhausting, and work in agriculture and especially in forestry can unfortunately also be dangerous. I would like to focus here above all on this issue of occupational safety, which you, Commissioner, have raised. Work in agriculture takes place in the wild, takes place in any weather, takes place very often on slippery surfac…

22

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Question Time with Commissioners – Situation of animal health in Europe: how to prevent and prepare for future sanitary crises in agriculture

Madam President, Commissioner! Unfortunately, as colleagues have already said, the challenges in the area of animal health are increasing; this concerns African swine fever, but also chicken influenza and, especially in recent weeks, bluetongue, which is spreading in Europe. And it is of course not only a problem for the animal owners, for whom this often goes to the brink of financial ruin, but a…

19

Sep

2024

DE Speech

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Droughts and extreme weather events as a threat to local communities and EU agriculture in times of climate change (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! This is what scientists have warned us about, Mrs Arndt. What you have just said is not exactly what scientists have been saying for years, namely that extreme weather conditions will increase, that drought will increase and that, unfortunately, floods will also increase. We see this these days and unfortunately we have also seen this summer. Above…

16

Sep

2024

DE Speech

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Outcome of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I and the European People's Party, my group, welcome the initiative of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for strategic dialogue. I have now read with interest the result of the work of the 29 representatives of organizations, associations and associations, and I would also like to thank you for the work that has been done here. The Commissi…

23

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Production and marketing of plant reproductive material - Production and marketing of forest reproductive material (joint debate - Plant and forest reproductive material)

Mr President! I would like to conclude by thanking all those who have helped us in recent months to get to where we are today: the draftsman of the opinion in the Committee on the Environment, but also in particular my shadow rapporteurs, who have now also taken the floor here during the debate. I think we now have a good parliamentary position. Hopefully, we will vote on this tomorrow in the real…

23

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Production and marketing of plant reproductive material - Production and marketing of forest reproductive material (joint debate - Plant and forest reproductive material)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Ten years ago we failed here in this House when we wanted to give the European Union a modern seed law. We started with a bad proposal from the Commission at that time and the whole thing ended badly. This time we started with a better proposal. A proposal that brings together ten existing regulations into a single, legible text. I believe that we …

14

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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Promised revision of the EU animal welfare legislation and the animal welfare-related European citizens’ initiatives (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I have the impression that we have a debate here this morning, which is probably due to the upcoming election campaign. When it comes to animal welfare, I think there are three aspects, and you, Commissioner, have also raised them. There is one aspect, first of all, the transport of animals. There has been a special committee, there is a final repo…

28

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Need for an urgent Council decision in favour of amending the protection status of wolves in the Bern Convention (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! In November 2022, we spoke in favour of lowering the protection status for the wolf in the Berne Convention. Now the Commission is finally responding and, as I have just said, it is proposing to the Council to decide on this in the coming weeks. I hope and call on the Council to do the same and not leave this decision to the environment minister…

26

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Tackling the inflation in food prices and its social consequences and root causes (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Since the coronavirus pandemic, food prices have risen by almost 30 per cent since the beginning of 2021, while inflation averaged 15 per cent in the European Union over that period, i.e. half. That is, in the end, the consumer has to pay more when he goes to the supermarket, and probably the consumer also thinks that the farmer will then get more …

26

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, colleagues, in November 2022, we adopted a resolution on livestock farming and large carnivores in Europe. We ask for the review of the protection status in the Bern Convention. So far, this has not been implemented. With more than 20 000 wolves in almost every EU country, the Commission has now finally acted. And now it’s up to the Member States to adopt the Commission’s proposal…

7

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Empowering farmers and rural communities - a dialogue towards sustainable and fairly rewarded EU agriculture (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. What is sustainable? What is a sustainable farm? This is when it is possible to bring a business from generation to generation. Of course, this has an ecological element, but this also has an economic element: Farmers will eventually have to make do with their income. Why should a young person who enters agriculture accept that he earns less than his colleague w…