What Lena spoke about.

11

Mar

2025

DE Speech

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Presentation of the proposal on a new common approach on returns (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, those who don't have a right to stay in the EU should not be in the EU: A simple, self-explanatory sentence. Yet only one in five third-country nationals where the return order takes is effectively returned. This stretches Member States' capacity. It undermines the promise of international protection for those who are in real need of protection. It can have devastati…

13

Feb

2025

DE Speech

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Threats to EU sovereignty through strategic dependencies in communication infrastructure (debate)

Mr President! Commissioner! Communication is not just a deeply human need with social impact. Communication skills in times of crisis are essential for maintaining state and social order. This requires reliable structures and resources. This applies in the context of national security as well as in the European context. Being able to ensure information and communication flows, to produce situation…

12

Feb

2025

EN Speech

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Commission Work Programme 2025 (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, yesterday, the Munich Security Conference published their annual security index. Compared to the previous years, there are remarkable, although not surprising, changes. Migration as a result of climate change and war still ranks first, followed by rising concerns about Russia, followed by fear of terrorist attacks, worries about cyberattacks and threats by internatio…

10

Feb

2025

DE Speech

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Escalation of gang violence in Sweden and strengthening the fight against organised crime (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner. More than 70% of criminal networks operate across borders. They engage in trafficking in human beings, drug trafficking, money laundering – increasingly violent and brutal. Seven of the ten most dangerous networks in Europe – 55 in total – include several nationalities. Eight out of ten work under the guise of legal companies. Organized crime has always been and stil…

23

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Major interpellations (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, I'd like to address the topic of today on two levels: on a procedural one and on a content one. On the procedure, as a representative of this House, of course, I also need to underline the request towards the Commission to respect the timelines and, of course, to adhere to the timelines. There's a reason why we set timelines for the answering of the questions, and I thi…

22

Jan

2025

EN Speech

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Links between organised crime and smuggling of migrants in light of the recent UN reports (debate)

Madam President, dear Commissioner, the reports on the sophisticated links between migrant smuggling and other illicit activities are numerous, be it our SOCTA report or reports by UNHCR, by IOM, by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime. 80 % of criminal networks are, inter alia, involved in drugs trafficking and migrant smuggling; for the latter, with profits ranging from 20 million on one route to 90…

27

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and hybrid threats in the Baltic Sea (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, disinformation, deception, disruption, destabilisation, destruction – the playbook by now is well known. It is clearly visible in broad daylight. We see GPS jamming, we see cyber attacks, we see disinformation campaigns, attacks on logistical chains and service providers, critical infrastructure on land and sea being under attack, and there are worrying links to orga…

26

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen Area: the urgent need to lift controls at internal land borders (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, soon we will see three days in one. One will be a day to celebrate. Finally, after long years of negotiations, after fulfilling the criteria since 2011, after going through the gradual approach, finally Romania and Bulgaria will be members of the Schengen Area – hopefully as of next year. By saying so, we leave no space for the Council. The decision needs to be approved…

14

Nov

2024

EN Speech

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Enhancing Europe’s civilian and defence preparedness and readiness (debate)

Madam President, dear Mr Niinistö, disruption of critical services of supply chains, by pandemic, by sabotage, by hybrid threats, cyberattacks or natural disasters. The reasons to be prepared are multifaceted, and I specifically thank Mr Niinistö for the timely report, his reflection and his ideas. I said it before and I will say it as often as it is needed: the security landscape in Europe has wo…

23

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Foreign interference and hybrid attacks: the need to strengthen EU resilience and internal security (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner! For three years, Ukrainians have been fighting for their lives, their country, their sovereignty. Thanks to their struggle, Russia has not yet made progress with its goals and is responding with increasingly violent attacks on civilian facilities. Because they are not making progress, they are also resorting to hybrid attacks in the EU – hybrid attacks against all those…

23

Oct

2024

EN Answer

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Managing migration in an effective and holistic way through fostering returns (debate)

If you had been part of the negotiating team of the pact, you would have well known that we found a solution for the question of relocation, for the question of solidarity and for the question of solidarity that Member States need to contribute, which is the answer to your question.…

23

Oct

2024

EN Speech

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Managing migration in an effective and holistic way through fostering returns (debate)

Madam President, colleagues, let us, for a second, remind ourselves what the starting point last term was. Member States were not able to finalise the previous pact. The House had been kept in numerous discussions about the pact and was also not able to conclude. It took us long negotiations for a complex package and finally last year we arrived with a solution. Is it a silver bullet? How can it b…

22

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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State sponsored terrorism by the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of the recent attacks in Europe (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! This debate today is not just a foreign policy one. It is a domestic policy because we have done too little. Too little against an actor who fundamentally questions our free European world, too little for the courageous women in Iran itself, too little to protect our citizens in Europe. Because the picture on our streets is demonstrations that are becoming increasing…

7

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Facing fake news, populism and disinformation in the EU - the importance of public broadcasting, media pluralism and independent journalism (debate)

Madam President, Fake news, populism and disinformation are key challenges for democratic societies. This is not only true for the EU, but it must be clear to us that the conflict between autocracies and democracies is taking place here. Current disinformation campaigns aim at central European democratic values, productive debates, democratic exchanges, acceptance of compromises, trust in the stat…

7

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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The reintroduction of internal border controls in a number of Member States and its impact on the Schengen Area (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! At the beginning of the last legislative period, Schengen was already under enormous pressure. The impact of the pandemic, supply chain bottlenecks, but also since then: irregular migration at an unabated high level. This House has invested enormously, not only in the Asylum and Migration Pact, but also in the reform of the Schengen Borders Code, in numerous initiati…

18

Sep

2024

EN Answer

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The Hungarian “National Card” scheme and its consequences for Schengen and the area of freedom, security and justice (debate)

Well, then, dear colleague, allow me to draft a question back. If it's only about five requests, then why is there a need for a special scheme card here. So all about security checks and making sure that we know who is at the front of the European Union. That's all about.…

18

Sep

2024

DE Answer

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The Hungarian “National Card” scheme and its consequences for Schengen and the area of freedom, security and justice (debate)

Thank you for not questioning me in this context. But I did point out that opportunities can be created, but then security clearance must be stepped up, as some other Member States of the European Union have also done; In this respect, this is not a contradiction.…

18

Sep

2024

EN Speech

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The Hungarian “National Card” scheme and its consequences for Schengen and the area of freedom, security and justice (debate)

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, representatives of the Council, colleagues, I think it's reasonable to set the scene for today's debate. Russia launched a brutal war of aggression against a sovereign country, targeting civilians with bombs, attacking critical infrastructure on a day-to-day basis. Both inside and outside the European Union, we see hybrid warfare being displayed, aggressing our…

18

Sep

2024

DE Speech

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Organised crime, a major threat to the internal security of the European Union and European citizens (topical debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! The Europol report on serious organised crime has already been mentioned. He alone lists 55 of the most dangerous criminal networks in the European Union. Structures between legal and illegal activities are disappearing and the willingness to use force has increased significantly. In addition, there are alarming links between organised crime structures and ra…

18

Sep

2024

DE Speech

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The devastating floods in Central and Eastern Europe, the loss of lives and the EU’s preparedness to act on such disasters exacerbated by climate change (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! We all have the pictures of the last few days in mind: the destructive flood, and at the same time the forest fires in Portugal. Therefore, first of all, of course, the thanks to all helpers and emergency services – they are doing superhuman things right now. We are on the side of those affected, we are even more on the side of those who have to mourn a loss. To…

22

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Amending Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, More than half of victims of trafficking in human beings in the EU are EU citizens – victims in their own country. At the same time, the number of non-EU citizens has increased in recent years. In some places, it already exceeds the numbers of domestic or intra-European victims. The majority of the vic…

10

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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Screening of third country nationals at the external borders - European Criminal Records Information System - Third Country Nationals - Common procedure for international protection in the Union - Establishing a return border procedure, and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1148 - Asylum and migration management - Addressing situations of crisis and force majeure - Establishment of 'Eurodac' for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EU) No 604/2013, for identifying an illegally staying third-country national or stateless person and on requests for the comparison with Eurodac data by Member States' law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes (recast) - Union Resettlement Framework - Standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection - Standards for the reception of applicants for international protection (recast) (joint debate - Migration and Asylum package)

Mr President! For me, there are and have been three convictions in the debate: Asylum and migration takes responsibility at every level: Europe, Member States, federal states or regions. This results in: What we can deliver in Europe, we must deliver. And thirdly, the principle ‘Human with those in need of protection, firm with those who are not.’ In 2019, we were faced with the fresh heap of shar…

12

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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A single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and on a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State (recast) (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Energy security, digitalisation, fragile economic prospects – the coming years will not be easier for our economy. The urgent need to reduce overregulation and return to the principles of the social market economy must therefore be at the forefront, which is exactly what has made the single market successful for 30 years. Immediately thereafter,…

11

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, I do not want to speak against it in general, because it has indeed been pointed out that it is a very important issue that has been repeatedly addressed here from within the House. However, I would like to propose an alternative title in which we take out the reference to Thessaloniki, not because we want to do it in terms of content, but simply because we have not yet been able …

14

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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Frontex, building on the fact-finding investigation of the LIBE Working Group for Frontex Scrutiny (B9-0499/2023) (vote)

Mr President, following the recent judgment I would like to add a new sentence after recital G, recital ga (new): ‘Whereas on 13 December the General Court dismissed another action brought against the Agency as manifestly lacking any foundation in law’.…