What Herbert spoke about.

16

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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Availability of fertilisers in the EU (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! For over a year, our farmers have been suffering from an explosion of costs on their farms, and these are only partially offset by higher product prices. Fertilizer prices are particularly explosive and important. And, of course, this is partly due to the high energy prices, but it would also be too easy to blame only on energy prices; It is obv…

13

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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EU funding allocated to NGOs incriminated in the recent corruption revelations and the protection of EU financial interests (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I think it is relatively obvious that the criminal activity of a non-governmental organisation plays a very important role in the corruption scandal that unfortunately shakes this House. And yet, for weeks now, the left side of this House has been refusing to talk with hands and feet about the transparency of precisely these non-governmental org…

2

Feb

2023

DE Speech

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Preparation of the EU-Ukraine Summit (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The war in Ukraine has also put the food supply in Europe and the world as a whole to the test. It is a good thing that the Commission has tried to open up new export routes from Ukraine, especially as long as the seaports in the Black Sea were closed. But the dismantling of all export tariffs and the new export routes directly to the European U…

14

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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Tackle the cost of living crisis: increase pay, tax profits, stop speculation (topical debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The inflation we are currently experiencing has basically two causes: Energy and, unfortunately, food. And the two are very closely related. On average, 11% of agricultural costs are energy costs. In addition, there are currently high fertilizer prices, which are also partly the result of high energy prices. As a result, many people are unfortun…

12

Dec

2022

DE Speech

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A long-term vision for the EU's rural areas (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Rural areas are habitats for people. And these people who live there have every right to quality of life, which may be different than in the cities, but must not be worse. People in rural areas have the right to healthcare, they have the right to safe roads, public transport, fast internet, child care centres, schools, retirement homes and much …

23

Nov

2022

DE Speech

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Protection of livestock farming and large carnivores in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! In 1992, when the Habitats Directive placed the wolf and other large predators – the brown bear, the lynx – under protection in the EU, these species were practically extinct in the European Union. Today, 30 years later, this policy has been successful. All these species are back in the habitats of the European Union – but unfortunately they also c…

9

Nov

2022

DE Speech

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Communication on ensuring availability and affordability of fertilisers (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Thank you, Commissioner, for your efforts in this communication, which you have now presented. And I think, especially as far as the medium and long-term solution to the problem is concerned, you have given some very valuable inputs. Yesterday, your DG AGRI staff presented a terrifying number to us in the Committee on Agriculture. If we add up t…

9

Nov

2022

DE Speech

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REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Of course, the European Union needs more of its own energy. And, of course, agriculture can and must help to achieve this goal. Biogas plants can make an important contribution, and they can also promote circularity in the fertilizer sector. But the Commission's proposal to move money from the CAP, from the common agricultural policy, to REPowerEU …

19

Oct

2022

DE Speech

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Global food security as follow-up to the G20 Agriculture Ministers meeting (debate)

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! Access to healthy food is not a luxury, it is a human right. And it remains our obligation to do everything we can to ensure that this right belongs to all people in the world and that no one has to suffer from hunger or even die from it. And we were actually on the right track. In recent years, hunger in the world has hardly been a questio…

6

Oct

2022

DE Speech

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The urgent need for an EU strategy on fertilisers to ensure food security in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! In fact, fertilizer prices are currently extremely high, and not only since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The rise in prices had already begun about a year ago. This is also due to the fact that supply chains did not function fully after the COVID-19 pandemic. But of course, as you said, Commissioner, it also has to do with exploding gas prices and…

13

Sep

2022

DE Speech

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Consequences of drought, fire, and other extreme weather phenomena: increasing EU's efforts to fight climate change (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Behind us lies one of the hottest and driest summers our continent has ever experienced. The consequences for agriculture will be felt. The harvest of autumn fruits, especially corn, will be historically deep in Europe. From this it is necessary to draw lessons. We need investments in irrigation technologies, in storage tanks. We also need better, even cross-bor…

12

Sep

2022

DE Speech

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New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 – Sustainable Forest Management in Europe (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Forests are part of our landscape, our cultural and natural areas, they are economic areas, shelters, recreation areas, core cells of biodiversity. But for forests to be able to guarantee this diversity, they need attention, they need protection and care. The responsibility for this lies with the Member States and local authorities, and we want to …

7

Jul

2022

IT Speech

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Recent heat wave and drought in the EU (debate)

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, drought in some areas of the Mediterranean basin, especially in Italy, has a major impact on agriculture. This is not only a problem for farmers, but also a problem for consumers. Food security in Europe is already at risk due to the war in Ukraine, food prices have been rising for months and it is increasingly clear that harvesting in the European Union th…

6

Jul

2022

DE Speech

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Facilitating export of Ukrainian agricultural products: key for Ukrainian economy and global food security (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. I was at the Polish-Ukrainian border about two weeks ago and will be at the Romanian-Ukrainian border in the next few days, and I have to say that the export of bread grains from Ukraine with destination Africa is simply not taking place at the moment. Although grain is exported from Ukraine, as you said, Commissioner, it is almost exclusively feed for the EU…

7

Jun

2022

DE Speech

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Binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States (Effort Sharing Regulation) - Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) - CO2 emission standards for cars and vans (joint debate – Fit for 55 (part 2))

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. On this Earth, there is a single process in which carbon dioxide is captured, carbon is stored, and oxygen is released back into the atmosphere: This is photosynthesis. Wherever plants, trees, algae breathe, there is also active climate protection. So we have to make sure that plants grow on this earth and that the stored carbon remains stored. Agriculture and f…

19

May

2022

DE Speech

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The REPowerEU Plan: European solidarity and energy security in face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including the recent cuts of gas supply to Poland and Bulgaria (debate)

(Start of speech with microphone switched off.) ... Less energy from Russia, more production in the European Union. We probably all agree on the goal. But when I look at the REPowerEU proposal, I still have questions: EUR 7.5 billion will be diverted from the second pillar of the common agricultural policy to build new biogas plants. I wonder: Where do the raw materials come from? Is it appropriat…

2

May

2022

DE Speech

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EU action plan for organic agriculture (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Of course, if we want to make agriculture sustainable in Europe as a whole, organic farming plays a very important role. Of course not the only one; it is also about making conventional agriculture more sustainable, including through integrated production, for example. But the action plan on organic farming presented by the Commission recognises…

23

Mar

2022

DE Speech

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Need for an urgent EU action plan to ensure food security inside and outside the EU in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (debate)

– Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! 43 billion euros. This is how much the Commission's special plan to deal with the supply crisis with chips weighs. With 500 million euros – which, incidentally, are already provided for in the CAP as a crisis reserve, i.e. are already farmers’ money – the Commission now wants to solve the food crisis, which is clearly on our side – as Commissi…

17

Feb

2022

IT Speech

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Strengthening the system for protecting PDO and PGI denominations in the EU after the Prosecco/Prosek case (G-001003/2021 - B9-0004/2022)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, imagine a request for a traditional term called 'champagnac' or perhaps 'Portuguese'. Does that sound crazy to you? Honestly, me too. But it does not seem so absurd, otherwise we would not have arrived at this debate that we have here today. Prosecco is not just any denomination in Europe. With 600 million bottles it is the most produced sparkling wine in Eur…

16

Feb

2022

DE Speech

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Charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Let me give you an example: From Verona to Munich, one of the most important transport axes in Europe runs through the middle of the Alps, right in the middle of the Brenner Pass. This route is used by 2.5 million trucks and 11 million passenger cars per year. 54 million tons of goods are transported here every year, three quarters of them by truck…

15

Feb

2022

DE Speech

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Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer(debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Cancer is an issue that we like to and often displace, but when it hits us or our families, it unfortunately becomes the most important thing in our lives. And because we repress, we often do not think about how we can prevent this terrible disease on a daily basis: through more exercise, by abstaining from tobacco and also through healthy, bala…

14

Feb

2022

DE Speech

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Implementation report on on-farm animal welfare (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The welfare of animals, whether in agriculture or domestic animals, is a task of our society. And that is why, I believe, this report is important. We have to ask ourselves: Where are we today? And what else needs to be improved? Animal welfare begins where animals are kept, i.e. on our farms, but it also goes far beyond that. Animals must be pr…

20

Jan

2022

DE Speech

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Protection of animals during transport - Protection of animals during transport (Recommendation) (debate)

Madam President, Dear Commissioner! Dear colleagues! If animals have to be transported – and sometimes you have to – then they have the right to be transported properly. And on that, I think, the European Union has, we have no progressive legislation, and many pictures, which we unfortunately see again and again in the press on bad transports, would not exist if the national and local authorities …

23

Nov

2021

DE Speech

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Common agricultural policy - support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States and financed by the EAGF and by the EAFRD - Common agricultural policy: financing, management and monitoring - Common agricultural policy – amendment of the CMO and other regulations (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, What would have happened in the last two years if we had not produced enough food for our citizens in Europe? If, as with semiconductor chips, we had been dependent on raw materials, whether third countries supply us with food or perhaps not? Luckily, we have been making sure that our European farmers produce food for us for decades with a …

20

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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An EU strategy to reduce methane emissions (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, methane is an efficient, unfortunately very efficient greenhouse gas, and yes, reduction is of course an important goal. But I think the debate we are having here must also be based on scientific facts. That's why you have to look at: Where does methane come from? Does it come from animals? When it comes from animals, does it come from farm animals or do…