What Gerben-Jan spoke about.

8

Jul

2026

NL Answer

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 18-19 June 2026 (debate)

It's always wonderful to have national politics in the European Parliament. Food security: You may have recently read the report that states that the Netherlands is an importer of food. Not because of human consumption, but because of the enormous amount of animal feed that we have to import to keep our head of water afloat to animal production. If you are really, really involved in Europe's food …

8

Jul

2026

EN Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 18-19 June 2026 (debate)

Madam President, the European economy will experience long-lasting damage from the Hormuz crisis, and that's a fact. When fossil fuel is expensive, European industry suffers deeply – that is also a fact. When sea levels rise, my country, the Netherlands, must build expensive infrastructure or it will drown – also a fact. In short, our fossil fuel addiction is becoming very, very expensive. We have…

15

Jun

2026

EN Answer

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Time for European economic independence (debate)

Well, thank you very much for that question. I think the most important message of Draghi regarding energy is that we should become independent and produce our own energy, and that, per definition, is clean energy. It is either fully renewable or nuclear and I think that is that is very clear because we do not have oil, we do not have sufficient gas and coal is obviously out of the question if we …

15

Jun

2026

EN Speech

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Time for European economic independence (debate)

Mr President, colleagues, what do high energy prices, Chinese clean tech, US weapons and digital services, and critical raw materials have in common? Well, they all add up to European dependency. And let's be honest, we are dependent on others, otherwise we would not be having this debate. As a liberal and a democrat, my political mission is that people have their own fate in their own hands, and …

20

May

2026

EN Speech

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Reviewing the ETS system to support European competitiveness (topical debate)

Mr President, I just want to make a point of order. We have a topical debate. This hall is totally empty. Even the one who initiated the debate is not here to listen to the Commission. This is not only offensive to a Commissioner, but also to this institution, the European Parliament. This is not a place like a press room, where you have your statement for cameras and then you leave. This is a pol…

20

May

2026

EN Speech

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Reviewing the ETS system to support European competitiveness (topical debate)

Madam President, since I fundamentally believe that these kind of debates should allow for blue cards, I'll react to a few of my colleagues. First of all, Mr Procaccini, who already left, he called climate policy being ideological, but spending more than EUR 500 billion annually on fossil fuels, is that ideological or factual? And that Member States who have the lowest investments in clean energy,…

18

May

2026

NL Speech

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Order of business

Mr President, I too am basing myself on Rule 10 of our Rules of Procedure. Last week, among other things, in Loosdrecht, in the Netherlands, it was again shown how strong and unfortunately also dangerous words can be from politicians. Violence has been used in protests against asylum seekers' centres, against asylum seekers themselves and their escorts, and also against the police and the fire bri…

29

Apr

2026

EN 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)

Mr President, energy is the most essential building block of our economy. When energy prices go up, people suffer, businesses suffer. Why? Because we do not control our own energy prices. Others do. Events do. The good news is we have already insulated ourselves from the worst shocks, quite literally, with all the homes we have insulated – boring but important work. And because we are generating m…

28

Apr

2026

EN Speech

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Joint debate - Discharge 2024 (joint debate)

Madam President, let me start by thanking the Court of Auditors, the Commission and the Council for this debate. But most of all, my colleagues here in this House, not so many are left, but still, I want to thank them. And I'm honestly grateful for their very strong words on transparency, the need for transparency, the need to protect public money, and also the important need to be accountable. Bu…

28

Apr

2026

EN Speech

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Joint debate - Discharge 2024 (joint debate)

Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, this discharge procedure is perhaps the most important parliamentary tool that we have. And you see it attracts huge crowds also in this plenary. It's where this House exercises genuine democratic power and it makes the EU institutions accountable to the EU citizens. I had the honour of reporting on Parliament's discharge, and it concerns a huge sum – in 202…

27

Apr

2026

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, I refer to Rule 44 that is about Parliament's right to the access of documents. This is about the fact that the European Commission most probably will publish a report later this week on the simplification of the deforestation law, the EUDR. We all know that the EUDR was postponed with one year due to IT problems. I requested five months ago certain documents. I am waiting now for…

25

Mar

2026

NL Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 19 March 2026 (debate)

This will be a repeat of moves, Mr. Smith. The only thing that really helps is what was in the Green Deal – but you do not take it seriously – namely energy efficiency. Energy saving is the most important thing to prevent this type of shock. As long as the European Union remains so dependent on fossil fuels coming from outside Europe, no emergency measure will structurally help. So join me, …

25

Mar

2026

NL Answer

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 19 March 2026 (debate)

Thank you for this question, especially since it comes from someone whose party was in the cabinet in the past period, so a cabinet that has only been in office for four weeks is not responsible for empty gas stocks. That is the previous cabinet, in which your party was in, and it makes no sense at all to take all kinds of compensatory measures at the pump now. As you know, the rich ben…

25

Mar

2026

EN Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 19 March 2026 (debate)

Madam President, President Costa, Commissioner, the world today requires Europe to develop into something it is not yet – develop into a political giant, develop into a military force and develop into the most innovative economy with high tech and very low energy prices. Development – for that, we look at our heads of state. The European Council shall, and I quote the Treaty on European Union, 'pr…

10

Feb

2026

EN Speech

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Extreme weather events in particular in Portugal, southern Italy, Malta and Greece: European response in strengthening readiness, preparedness and solidarity mechanisms (debate)

Madam President, I'll try to speak Irish. No, without joking, Commissioner, dear jointly, I actually wanted to say this in Dutch. If you drive through the Dutch Zeeland, you sometimes imagine yourself in Scandinavia. There are very nice wooden, colored houses as proofs of European solidarity. European solidarity of 1953. After the flood disaster in 1953, with 1,800 victims in the Netherlands, Scan…

21

Jan

2026

EN Speech

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European Council meeting (joint debate)

Mr President, High‑Commissioner, President Costa, dear colleagues, in 2016, we were taken by surprise by Trump's actions and we even smirked and laughed about his incompetence. 10 years on and we are taken by surprise again, and this time the smirking and laughing is happening on the other side of the Atlantic. While we struggle to respond to Trump's threats and attacks, the US scoffs at our inabi…

17

Dec

2025

EN Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 18-19 December 2025, in particular the need to support Ukraine, transatlantic relations and the EU’s strategic autonomy (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, dear colleagues, after the Munich Security Conference and the grilling of President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, it is now with the publication of the National Security Strategy more than clear that Europe is on its own and should act accordingly, institutionally and economically and on security. And this week in Berlin, a selection of European leaders sho…

16

Dec

2025

EN Speech

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Presentation of the automotive package (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, this debate is not about climate policy. It is about the economy and about physical laws, because the electric motor converts 95 % of the energy to movement and the combustion engine only 30 %. That is why the future is electric. Its technology is simply superior in energy terms and in cost terms. So to save the European car industry, we have one sin…

25

Nov

2025

EN Speech

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Increasing the efficiency of the EU guarantee under the InvestEU Regulation and simplifying reporting requirements (debate)

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, dear colleagues, InvestEU is an example of the best the EU can do. Every euro that we allocate to InvestEU generates an additional EUR 15 of investment in key strategic priorities for the Union, and this investment omnibus is expected to generate over EUR 50 billion in additional public and private investments. When a programme is as successful as InvestEU, you sh…

24

Nov

2025

EN Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, I refer to Rule 44: 'Access to documents and provision of information to Parliament', and it refers to Wednesday's vote on the deforestation regulation. When the European Commission came forward with its so-called IT problems on 23 September, I asked through the formal procedures for more information on these written questions, but also access to documents. So far I haven't got an…

13

Nov

2025

EN Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 23 October 2025 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, let me start by thanking President von der Leyen for her strong words on the necessity of decarbonising our economy – as she said, it is crucial for our competitiveness. But today, I would like to focus on Ukraine. Last month's European Council discussed the use of the frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, but, since that meeting, Russian troops have closed in on Pokrov…

12

Nov

2025

EN Speech

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Framework for achieving climate neutrality (debate)

Mr President, thank you, Commissioner, dear colleagues, tomorrow's vote on the 2040 climate target is one of the most important of this mandate, and rightly so, because climate change is one of the biggest threats to humanity. Already we are faced with unbearable heatwaves, droughts, forest fires and floods, and these events will only be more extreme and devastating in the years to come. But also …

22

Oct

2025

EN Speech

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Presentation of the Court of Auditors' annual report 2024 (debate)

Mr President, President Murphy, Commissioner, dear colleagues, this year's annual report is not just another audit document to tick off, it's a political compass, and it shows us how European taxpayers' money is being spent and, more importantly, whether it truly delivers value for our citizens. And this year, it carries even more weight because we are entering the negotiations for the next MFF. A…

22

Oct

2025

EN Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 23 October 2025 (debate)

Madam President, Madam Minister, Commissioner, colleagues, security, prosperity and climate action. The European Council agenda focuses on the big challenges facing Europe right now. Indeed, we cannot take chances with Putin, nor can we gamble with the living standards of future generations. Uncomfortable risks that need addressing. But there's just one 100 % risk here, and that's climate change. …

8

Oct

2025

EN Speech

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Europe’s automotive future – reversing the ban on the sale of combustion cars in the EU (topical debate)

Madam President, colleagues, 2035 is ten years from now and we will be three US presidents further, and obviously we still have President von der Leyen sitting here. But if you look ten years forward, it is also very valuable to look ten years back as well. In 2015, the best selling electric vehicle was the European Renault Zoe with a range of 100 km. Today's EV world is incomparable to that of 20…