Nikos Papandreou
Member of the European Parliament · S&D · GR
“Madam President, Commissioner, I think the word that we need in this discussion is the word 'addiction'. We know about alcohol. We know about cigarettes. This has to be added as a health danger. There's no doubt about it. We know that it causes isolation, depression and even, unfortunately, suicide. So let's be practical about it.”
“How about big tech platforms mentioned by Veronika should be held liable for cyberbullying and the wave of related suicides. They have to be responsible, the same way cars are responsible for faulty brakes. Restrictions. Ban addictive features like doomscrolling, autoplay, constant notifications and streaks.”
“Madam President, Vice-President, I think sometimes we need to restate the obvious and to take a look from the outside. What is the European Union, in fact? It's a very strange animal. Empires until now were built through force.”
“We need to continue the energy of membership so that we break down the national interest, as was mentioned earlier. The single market problem will not be solved only by Brussels.”
“Κύριε Πρόεδρε, Επίτροπε Várhelyi, συνάδελφοι, μάθαμε ή μάλλον αργήσαμε να μάθουμε ότι εξαρτώμαστε από ξένες χώρες όλο και περισσότερο για τα φάρμακα μας. Η γεωπολιτική έχει εισβάλει και στον χώρο των φαρμάκων. Πολιτικές ξένων δυνάμεων απειλούν τα εθνικά μας συστήματα υγείας.”
“Κυρία Πρόεδρε, κυρία Επίτροπε Albuquerque, έχουμε φυσικά, ζούμε στην εποχή της τεχνητής νοημοσύνης και του διαδικτύου και μέσα στο διαδίκτυο, ξέρουμε όλοι, έχουμε τα καλά και τα στραβά. Έχει αναπτυχθεί το φαινόμενο του finfluencer, σύντμηση του financial influencer, το οποίο δίνει και σωστές συμβουλές και κακές συμβουλές.”
The complete record
Every one of 54 lines we hold for Nikos Papandreou, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 2.
“How about big tech platforms mentioned by Veronika should be held liable for cyberbullying and the wave of related suicides. They have to be responsible, the same way cars are responsible for faulty brakes. Restrictions. Ban addictive features like doomscrolling, autoplay, constant notifications and streaks. I think we all agree that this technology should serve our children and not profit from it. 3-0121-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner, I think the word that we need in this discussion is the word 'addiction'. We know about alcohol. We know about cigarettes. This has to be added as a health danger. There's no doubt about it. We know that it causes isolation, depression and even, unfortunately, suicide. So let's be practical about it. We have rules, and the ones you mentioned earlier, they're basically detox, psychological therapy, once you're addicted. Let's stop them from getting addicted. We have to be tougher. It's one of the few times I support intensive regulation. How about labelling? Social media should come with the warning 'Extended use is harmful to your health'. Maybe that goes on the screen. We need to think about it. Liability.”
“We need to continue the energy of membership so that we break down the national interest, as was mentioned earlier. The single market problem will not be solved only by Brussels. Only if the countries themselves take the responsibility for the difficult giving up of sovereignty, breaking national interest, the banking system, worker regulations that are never followed will we have a true single market. 3-0101-0000”
“Madam President, Vice-President, I think sometimes we need to restate the obvious and to take a look from the outside. What is the European Union, in fact? It's a very strange animal. Empires until now were built through force. Historically, it's the first time – maybe someone can correct me – where countries join of their own will, let's say, a certain 'empire'. How do they do that? They have to give up their sovereignty. That's never happened before. To join the club, you have to do something. You have to give up for what? For prosperity, for collective bargaining, mentioned by the left, for the benefits that you get, with all its attendant problems. However, it seems to me that, once they've joined the club, they're like professors with tenure: they stop publishing.”
“Η πρόσβαση στα φάρμακα, όπως είπαν πάρα πολλοί ομιλητές ήδη, δεν είναι μόνο ανθρώπινο δικαίωμα, είναι ζήτημα ευρωπαϊκής κυριαρχίας και αλληλεγγύης. 1-0196-0000 Intervenții la cerere 1-0197-0000”
“Κύριε Πρόεδρε, Επίτροπε Várhelyi, συνάδελφοι, μάθαμε ή μάλλον αργήσαμε να μάθουμε ότι εξαρτώμαστε από ξένες χώρες όλο και περισσότερο για τα φάρμακα μας. Η γεωπολιτική έχει εισβάλει και στον χώρο των φαρμάκων. Πολιτικές ξένων δυνάμεων απειλούν τα εθνικά μας συστήματα υγείας. Ο ανταγωνισμός είναι σκληρός, και είναι ένας ανταγωνισμός που κοστίζει ζωές. Ως απάντηση σε αυτές τις προκλήσεις, ψηφίσαμε προσφάτως την πράξη για τα φάρμακα κρίσιμης σημασίας, που είναι ένα βήμα προς τη σωστή κατεύθυνση, στηρίζει την έρευνα και τις επενδύσεις και δίνει έμφαση σε αυτό που λέμε «made in Europe». Προτείνει κοινή ευρωπαϊκή προμήθεια φαρμάκων για να έχουμε χαμηλότερες τιμές αλλά και σίγουρη προσφορά. Όμως, ύστατός μας σκοπός είναι ο κάθε Ευρωπαίος πολίτης να έχει ίση πρόσβαση στα φάρμακα και η πρόσβαση αυτή να μην εξαρτάται από πού ζει ή πόσα βγάζει.”
“Πιστεύω ότι τα σχολεία πρέπει να μαθαίνουν πώς να μαθαίνουν, να μάθουν τα παιδιά και όλοι μας πώς θα μάθουμε. Γιατί δεν μπορούμε να φορτώνουμε τα παιδιά με όλες τις ειδικότητες που χρειάζονται σήμερα. Άρα, όταν μεγαλώσει το παιδί να ξέρει να διακρίνει το σωστό από το στραβό. 1-0203-0000”
“Κυρία Πρόεδρε, κυρία Επίτροπε Albuquerque, έχουμε φυσικά, ζούμε στην εποχή της τεχνητής νοημοσύνης και του διαδικτύου και μέσα στο διαδίκτυο, ξέρουμε όλοι, έχουμε τα καλά και τα στραβά. Έχει αναπτυχθεί το φαινόμενο του finfluencer, σύντμηση του financial influencer, το οποίο δίνει και σωστές συμβουλές και κακές συμβουλές. Όμως πώς να το καταλάβουμε; Εγώ, ως διαστροφή οικονομολόγου, θα το χωρίσω σε προσφορά και ζήτηση. Τι μας προσφέρουν; Πώς θα ελέγξουμε την προσφορά; Μπορούμε να θεσπίσουμε κανόνες, όπως λέει η εξωτερική έκθεση της κυρίας Pereira. Μπορούμε να φτιάξουμε ένα wiki που δίνει προσφορές που είναι ανεξάρτητο και crowd-sourced. Μπορούμε επίσης να να πάμε στο άλλο σημείο που δεν συμφωνώ τόσο πολύ. Την εκπαίδευση της ζήτησης, δηλαδή η εκπαίδευση των παιδιών στα χρηματοοικονομικά στο σχολείο.”
“It sounds a little bit totalitarian, but we have to push on the MFF and make sure that money has European investments, goes to strategic investments like biotech, and is imposed on the governments. Finally, we have something called leadership, and leadership is not just von der Leyen – not just you, it's the prime ministers, but it is also us. We are also responsible for the single market Union. 3-0108-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner, briefly on the Green Deal – yes, the Green Deal will cost more, but better to spend now than later. It's like preventive health: do we want the patient to get sick and pay ICU or to be healthy now and spend much less? So, yes, it's going to cost. Now, why do we want the single market? Why do we have so much pressure in the Draghi report? Because that'll make – to use a word not used here – the capitalist system work better. Why do we want the capitalist system to work better? In the Socialists and Democrats, we have a surplus – an old word – for our health policies, for our society. How do we get there? That's our big problem. I see two ways. This is a one-minute speech. One is, we have the MFF. That wasn't mentioned. I look at the MFF as a tool to break down the silos.”
“We now have a dizzying array of currencies, including the stablecoin, which will reduce the levers of power for the ECB to control things like inflation. We're going to have non-banking pay systems. So for me, the digital euro – for all of us here, most of us, I hope – we believe that sovereignty means a digital euro publicly owned, accountable to the public and democratic accountability. 1-0130-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner, Ms Lagarde, good to see you again – you come here very often, which shows the democratic accountability of the ECB. So since we mentioned the digital euro, and that is in the report, you know that every time we use our cards, 85 % of the time, some of the money goes across the Atlantic. But not only that, even the European cards, they have to use Visa/Mastercard software in the POS, those little machines that we pay with. So imagine – maybe not so crazy – that the United States is not happy with Denmark for obvious reasons. We could turn off Visa/Mastercard for a week or two to make them hurt. It happened in Russia and it's happened with ICJ judges. So it's not so extreme to talk about sovereignty. But it's not only about pay systems. This is about financial stability.”
“So we need to make this necessary. We need to use the new technology to capture this new technology, so we can support the online sports activities. 3-0459-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner Micallef, this discussion shows that we are all on your side, and I like what you said in your introduction. We need to improve on the situation. That's what we're saying. Live streaming is part of our era's zeitgeist, to use a German word. Except we have these money-hungry groups that want to take away something from us and they call them pirates. But when we say pirates, we think of one guy with a black bandana on a ship – no, they're thieves. And from what the numbers say, as Maria Guzenina said, 30 billion euros are disappearing from taxes and from people who lose their intellectual property rights. I think we have the technology. The Digital Services Act is actually about static activities: movies, TV series and books. This is about instant response, and you talked about the dynamic intervention.”
“I recall in the 1980s when my father made the 'Five Continent' agreement with Indira Gandhi, Nyerere and Palme, which had a vision for the five continents to come together. With this trade deal, we have to have a new vision that will start to look at the new world order that we're facing as of this week. 3-0356-0000 Spontane Wortmeldungen 3-0357-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner, last year in Athens, President Modi emphasised the need for a renewed EU-India partnership. Given the vote today on Mercosur, of course, I think the lesson for us on this is let's do it right this time. We are here in Parliament to make sure that we take care of the concerns, and it seems that we are turning around 30 years of growth, which was free-trade growth. It should not be a zero sum game – the fact that there's a EUR 10 billion deficit in Europe does not mean that if Europe does better, India does worse, or if Europe does worse, India does better. We have to get beyond that simple mathematics, and we have to go beyond economics, because now, as everybody has mentioned, the old order is dead.”
“So we are avoiding new ponderous bureaucracies and making a much smoother system. Tomorrow we vote 'yes'. The Critical Medicines Act is critical for the health of European citizens. 1-0125-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner Kadis, so what is this Critical Medicine Act about? I'm going to be technical on this one. I won't be so political. I think the people need to hear what it really is. First of all, it's a response to the risk in supply chains. And we've seen that in the last few years. We have measures to protect us. Stockpiling is one of them. Another one is to encourage more investments in research and in start-ups. For those who disagree, we encourage voluntary joint procurement. Voluntary. We propose a successful multi-winner tender system ‑ for those who know it's very successful ‑ and this diversifies suppliers for the same medicine. Finally, I'm pleased to say the work of the rapporteurs has actually reduced bureaucracy and taken the best practices and improved on them.”
“Κύριε πρόεδρε, σήμερα ψηφίζουμε τον κανονισμό για τα κρίσιμα φάρμακα, αγγλιστί Critical Medicines Act. Γιατί το κάνουμε αυτό; Πρόκειται για κανονισμό που δίνει κίνητρα όχι μόνο για επενδύσεις και παραγωγή στην Ευρώπη, αλλά και για κλινικές δοκιμές, για έρευνα στα πανεπιστήμια που έχουν δημόσιο χαρακτήρα, καθώς και για κλινικές δοκιμές. Η πανδημία μάς έδειξε ότι έχουμε πολλές ελλείψεις. Αυτός ο νόμος προσπαθεί να μας λύσει το πρόβλημα των ελλείψεων. Όπως είδαμε με την covid, έχουμε επίσης τη γεωπολιτική πραγματικότητα. Εξαρτιόμαστε από την Ινδία και την Κίνα αλλά και την Αμερική των δασμών. Αυτό έχει αλλάξει ραγδαία την κατάσταση. Θέλουμε μια Ευρώπη που εξασφαλίζει τα φάρμακα για όλους τους πολίτες με ίση πρόσβαση. Φυσικά, θέλουμε να ενισχύσουμε και τον δημόσιο τομέα. Ελπίζω σε έναν μελλοντικό νόμο να το κάνουμε.”
“We have the Green Deal to try to deal with that. And of course, because I have children, we have the awful thing called the screen, which has great things, but also has caused an increase in anxiety in the young. And I think of Foucault's visit to the mental asylums – I would say visit the schools, and we can see the craziness going on there today. Finally, everybody agreed – everybody agreed, regardless of politics – that mental health should be at the top, top priority in every single policy. So I think if we take something away, let's make it really the number one project for the EU. The EU will be a gentle place. It will not be the rampant wars and capitalism we see in other countries. This should be the place where the social welfare state really works and supports the people.”
“Mr President, Commissioner, as the last speaker, I'd like to sum up what we heard in one minute. I think there's three things. First of all, we were talking about dealing with the mental health problem per se, the person. That means we're looking at the individual. That means we need more healthcare professionals. We also did not mention the healthcare asylums, and it was Michel Foucault who said the quality of a society you can find out by visiting the mental asylums. So we need to do work on that as well. That's the specific. The general is the problems that are caused that bring us to mental health problems. So we have the war in Ukraine. If you go to Ukraine, which I've been, they say we all have mental health anxiety. We are trying to stop the war. We have the apocalypse of the climate above us.”
“Finally, a point on Hungary – we welcome you back. You know what to do to join the Erasmus+, we support the increase in Erasmus+. Hungary can join when its boss makes the right decisions. 4-0031-0000”
“Mr President, why do we love the European Alliance? For those who are not in the plenary: Leibniz University in Germany, the National Technical University in Athens, Brno University of Technology in Czechia, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology in Finland, Jönköping University in Sweden, University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, the Technical University in Vienna, University L’Aquila and the Institut Mines-Télécom France – that's one alliance. I think people need to realise how important that is. For those who are still sad about the burning down of the Library of Alexandria, and I'm one of those, we have a European library when we have these alliances. If we want to own the future, we need to have that great European library and the great European university.”
“Basically, we need best practices from Europe to propose, for all countries, very practical – not expensive – solutions to prevent the fires. If we prevent the fires, we've won the game. The main problem is when the fire starts. And my slogan in Greece is: 'patriotism is not a political decision, not a political ideology; we have environmental patriotism'. That should be our slogan. To protect the environment is being patriotic. 2-0232-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner, I agree with much of what you said. We have the 2022 Wildfire Prevention Plan, but we can do more. I'm not going to criticise. We have a new world. Mega fires – and I went to the town of Patras – double in size in 30 seconds. So the main concept is prevention – and our firemen will tell you that; I'm a part of a volunteer firefighting group. And I want to propose, not a democracy shield, but a firefighting shield that would include the new technology: drones. We have hired drones in our local neighbourhood that can see a fire from 15 km away, even from a match. We are looking at little machines: AI robots that clear the forest floor and new condensers that take water and spread it around or can fill the container.”
“Κυρία Πρόεδρε, κυρία Επίτροπε, η έκθεση της κυρίας Lalucq και του κυρίου Draghi αφορά το ερώτημα «πώς να βγούμε από τον κακό ευρωπαϊκό καπιταλισμό» (γαλλικά στην ομιλία: «comment sortir de notre mauvais capitalisme européen»). Η διαφορά μεταξύ της Αμερικής και της Ευρώπης είναι αυτό που συζητάει αυτή η επιτροπή και αυτή η έκθεση. Από τη μία βλέπουμε τεράστιο πλούτο στην Αμερική, βλέπουμε ευρωπαϊκά χρήματα να πηγαίνουν στο Πάλο Άλτο και από την άλλη εδώ, το έχουμε πει όλοι, μένουμε πίσω. Νομίζω ότι αν έχουμε ένα σωστό καπιταλισμό, και αυτό είναι και μαρξιστική θέση, έναν εύρωστο καπιταλισμό, θα έχουμε τα χρήματα για να πληρώσουμε και για την άμυνα και για το κράτος πρόνοιας που μας «καίει» ως σοσιαλιστές και δημοκράτες.”
“Madam President, Commissioner, this is the fifth time we speak about Sudan, and I'd like to mention something that has not been discussed. And that is the role of the foreign actors in worsening the disaster in Sudan. We have a member of NATO, and a country that wants to be part of the SAFE architecture, and it's called Türkiye. There's robust proof that Türkiye is selling drones and military equipment to both sides of the conflict. If Türkiye wants to join the new architecture in the military, they should respect the sanctions on weapons to the war in Sudan. If they want to sit at the table, they should respect EU sanctions. 3-0438-0000”
“So that tears us in half; it's a 'yes' and a 'no', and we have to condemn atrocities whenever we see them if we are democratic people and believe in the European values. It does not matter if they had a victory star; they also have something very bad. Today we have a Fifth Column. It is not necessarily with weapons, it's with suits, tweets and explosions of falsehoods. It promises easy solutions to complex problems. We see little men and little women who want to use freedoms to abolish freedoms. Our speeches today are part of the act of resistance. 4-0086-0000”
“Mr President, I find it very interesting that just a few minutes ago we had a Member who was born in the gulag who spoke here. We have two Members whose families were involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler. This Chamber is haunted by those memories. My grandmother told me stories of the Great Famine in Athens in 1941. My grandfather was chased by Kurt Waldheim and escaped to Egypt, and then was lucky enough to be prime minister on Liberation Day and lift the Greek flag over the Acropolis. So those are the memories that haunt us. Yet we still have this big divide, and it happens to be Russia and the Soviet Union. The problem with that – and that's my problem – is that, yes, the Soviet Union helped defeat the Nazis, and that's a plus, but then they dominated Eastern Europe and made a totalitarian world.”
“Madam President, Mr Commissioner, thank you. Of course we condemn these kidnappings. There is a Greek word in the civil war called Paidomazoma, which was a practice. And we worry also that they convert them to hate Ukraine. There are bad. There are worse within the bad, when they kidnapped 100 children from the special school in the Kherson Oblast, in their wheelchairs and with their psychological problems. What we can do in a practical sense, and I didn't hear this today, is to help with the trauma of the families, to set up trauma centres. In our aid to Ukraine, we need to help those families cope and the children coming back. That is something that those families are demanding from us. 3-0506-0000”
“We have to take them apart somehow. In the Marxist version we take them over, but we're not in that world right now. The other problem that doesn't allow the small enterprises to grow are the state silos: banking union, energy grid, infrastructure. The ones who can get past the silos are the big companies. The Googles have no problem getting past the barriers country by country – an SME cannot get into the new market. That will help innovation and competition. 3-0235-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner, today we are discussing competition policy in the EU, and I always think it's a little ironic for a socialist Member to be talking about competition. But what we're talking about is something that the socialist movement has done for 150 years: a capitalism that produces the surplus for a good welfare state. And that's where we differ on our two sides. We want this capitalist system to work in a way that's fair for the people. In your report, we talk about the almost dirty words of 'capitalism', 'market abuse', 'excessive power', 'algorithmic collusion', 'data dominance' and 'greedflation'. These are the things that competition policy is supposed to handle. We have two problems. The monopolies are very difficult to take on. We need a strong Europe for that – it was mentioned. The fines I agree with.”
“Mr President, Commissioner, it sounds like a conundrum, 30 million rare diseases, as that doesn't sound so rare, but we know what we mean. Per disease it's very rare, but in total it's not. This leads naturally to one point I want to make – something that sounds technical: cross-border clinical trials, as that way we pool the few per country, but that also fits into our European vision of countries working together, with health systems connecting more, universities doing more research. And given the tariffs that were announced yesterday, which don't include pharma yet, but include reshoring of American companies like Eli Lilly, we need to make European solutions for our human problems, and then we'll solve problems not just for Europe, but for all of us. 4-0033-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner, it's a bit funny, but we want Türkiye to be in the EU. We in Greece. But not this Türkiye, not the Türkiye that puts in jail the mayor, that puts in jail Kavala, that puts in jail Demirtas for 42 years just because he's Kurdish. And yesterday, as was mentioned, the Swedish journalist was arrested for terrorism – Medin. We do have a weapon – and that's the weapons, actually. Our new defence architecture seems to include – at least silently – Türkiye, so far. You know that we don't want that. We would only want it if it was really a European country. So, let's make that effort. Until they release all the political prisoners, our European allies selling arms to Türkiye must stop. And when Türkiye follows the right path, we will be very happy to be their friendly neighbours. 2-0497-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner, thank you very much for bringing us into this discussion at an early stage so we can form the cultural compass together. In the last term, there was something called the Commissioner for European Way of Life. And when I first heard that, I actually smiled. But now I think it's more important than ever. And the European way of life includes… and I have to mention a few people, like Almodóvar, who makes us happy and sad, Pina Bausch from Solingen, who is a mortal, but when I saw her in Epidaurus in Greece, she looked like a goddess, and also Marina Abramović, Serbian. Perhaps they'll be part of the EU soon, too. So this is what I think of when I think of culture, and now that we're being attacked from within and from without, it's even more important. So I support your effort very much.”
“And that's up to us who believe in the savings and investment union to talk to those who make the decisions and probably take on some big business interests. 1-0109-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner, I'll divide this discussion of one minute into two parts. The first is what we can do here as a Commissioner, and that is the things we heard already. We all support the savings and investment union, financial literacy, completing Basel III and a more level taxation field. And that's something that we can do with your help. However, there's something that we have to do as individuals and as parties in the European Parliament, and that is to convince our own Member States to break that silo mentality. The reason they have that mentality is that the banking sectors in our own countries are very strong, and that's the next big step. We have to actually work in a cultural and a political way on this. It is not only laws and regulations – it's a cultural thing.”
“Let's ask the international community to send in peacekeeping forces, because this will be a ruined generation borne from violence. 3-0528-0000 Brīvais mikrofons 3-0529-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner, it's four months and we've spoken about Sudan three times. We haven't changed much. The previous speaker said something I agree with: setting up an 'EUAID', but that will take time. It won't happen tomorrow. We need, of course, to come in with humanitarian support. Tomorrow's vote, though, does have some concrete proposals to send peacekeeping forces right away to protect civilians, create safe spaces for women and children, sanction the commanders and impose an arms embargo on Sudan, as we have done on Darfur. I would like to remind the Chamber that one of our NATO allies is supplying drones to both sides of the conflict, an incredible profit-making machine from the death of the Sudanese. So, let's impose our vote tomorrow.”
“As Gabriele Bischoff pointed out, we want it to take place in a coordinated way and for the countries not to be at risk, but that's the heart of our problem. How can we manage both sides, where we increase spending and we have the defence budget? Can the defence budget be a green budget? In other words, can we include issues of environment when we make all the new weapons? Shouldn't there be a way of looking at pollution when we do those things? We've never discussed that. What does defence spending mean? How about education included in the defence spending for AI? We need to make sure this new budget, which is all right with the right so that we suddenly waive the deficit rules, includes some social elements in it. 3-0037-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner, this report is supposed to help us to coordinate for our future and to look at what we've done in the past, and it has some things that are worth pointing out. It talks about a financial instrument for private sector competition, coordinated defence spending and even the Green Deal, which upsets this side of the aisle. However, it also assumes that the Recovery and Resilience Fund is ending, and this goes to the heart of our ideological problem: do we grow through more spending, or do we grow through reducing our deficit? We can't have both. On this side of the aisle, we have the philosophical issue that we need more spending to grow. Of course, we want the spending to be more efficient.”
“But I think today we heard that everybody agrees with the CMA with its own criticisms. So I think we're on a good road. Congratulations for bringing this in time. And we're all here to work with you for the health of European citizens. 2-0270-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner, the Critical Medicines Act is our answer to shortages and supplies and less dependence on China and India. Very simple to say that. What medicines are we talking about? Basic ones like penicillin, amoxicillin, but even infusions for chemotherapy. The task will not be easy. We have many instruments at our disposal. We have the new pharma legislation. We have our effort on competition, AI effort and innovation. We're trying the Capital Markets Union. We want to industrialise. I don't even know if it's bringing back pharma to Europe. It's creating new pharma in Europe. It's not only reshoring. We are not going to use tariffs. We are going to produce it in our own country. We'll succeed on some. We won't succeed on others. That's how it works.”
“Why am I drinking two bottles of vodka Friday night?' If we do some training in school, in a way it'll destigmatise and we will know the signals early. By the time they're 25 or 30, it might be too late. So those proposals you have are exactly on point. Plus, the idea that we learn and we destigmatise, and we can be aware of the issues before they evolve into something deeper. 3-0529-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner, I agree with most of what you said – almost everything – and what I've heard today, except for the idea that EU policies bring depression and suicide. That I disagree with. If we knew the answers to why people get depressed, we would have solved it a long time ago. Education? Sports, for sure. Culture, for sure. I would like to add one more practical element, which maybe is in the discussion – I just joined the SANT Committee – maybe not, and that is self-reporting. How do we get young people to know that they're not? I like that 'silent' very much. You're silent because you don't know. You don't know you're not well, which means what we should call 'mental health literacy' – indicators that a 14-, 15-, 16-year-old will know: 'I'm sleeping too much. Why am I crying every day?”
“Κύριε Πρόεδρε, αφορμή για τη σημερινή μας συζήτηση είναι πάλι ο Erdoğan, που φυλάκισε τους δημάρχους, ειδικά στις κουρδικές περιοχές στις αρχές Νοεμβρίου. Και τρεις ακόμη προχθές. Η Τουρκία βαδίζει στον λάθος δρόμο. Το λέμε όλοι εδώ μέσα. Πρέπει να του δώσουμε όμως μηνύματα. Πρώτα από όλα, να ζητήσουμε την απελευθέρωση των δημάρχων. Δεύτερον, κυρώσεις σε όλους τους διορισμένους δημάρχους και τους ανθρώπους που τους έβαλαν εκεί. Και, τρίτον, δυστυχώς, λέμε ωραία λόγια εδώ, αλλά σύμμαχοι χώρες, σαν τη Γαλλία, θα πουλήσουν σύντομα πολύ ακριβά όπλα στην Τουρκία. Να προτείνουμε ρήτρα για τα όπλα αυτά, ώστε να μην χρησιμοποιηθούν τα όπλα της Ευρώπης κατά της Ευρώπης, ειδικά κατά της Ελλάδας, της Κύπρου, της Βόρειας Συρίας και των Κούρδων. Κυρώσεις στα όπλα που θα πουλήσει η Ευρώπη στην Τουρκία, ώστε να μην τα χρησιμοποιήσουν εναντίον μας.”
“Madam President, President Szłapka, Commissioner Kos, let's see where we are now. We had two very good statements from the President and the Commissioner, but we went one step more. I would say most of us here are giving a message to the Serbians. The message is: 'We're listening to you. We are listening to your demand for accountability. We are listening to your calls of corruption.' And that they are on the streets might be proof of democracy, but it's democracy that wants change. In fact, the people in the streets are very inspiring. They remind us, President Szłapka, of 1989 in Poland; they bring back memories for us here that are very exciting. So the message from Parliament today: 80 % are saying we want to be on the right side of history when it comes to Serbia. 2-0433-0000”
“Puteți să-mi spuneți, vă rog frumos - și în calitate de avocat, vă întreb - cum veți ajunge la concluzia că persoana respectivă acționează cinstit, corect și profesional, înainte de a fi în calitatea lor de ofertanți sau persoanele care solicită admiterea la tranzacționare? 4-0104-0000 Nikos Papandreou (S&D), blue-card answer. – If I understood the question, we have two ways of using crypto: one is companies which invest, and the other is individual purchases. Those are two separate entities. The companies that use crypto to invest need to be regulated. The individual using it for purchases is not a legal entity and comes under different rules, if I understood you properly. 4-0105-0000”
“We will not be able to regulate the huge space from the rest of the world, unless we have our own digital coin that people will trust in, not only in Europe but internationally. MiCA helps on that. The way we will impose international standards and MiCA is by having our own innovation and our own Europe. (The speaker agreed to take a blue-card question) 4-0103-0000 Diana Iovanovici Şoşoacă (NI), întrebare adresată conform procedurii „cartonașului albastru”. – Ați vorbit de regulamentul MiCA. Aici avem o regulă în care se menționează că ofertanții sau persoanele care solicită admiterea la tranzacționare cu criptoactive, altele decât jetoanele de referință la active și jetoanele de bani electronici, trebuie să fie persoane juridice, să publice o carte albă, iar următoarea regulă este: să acționați cinstit, corect și profesional.”
“Madam President, Commissioner, from this discussion I think the answer is staring us in the face. We have two distinct philosophies, one on one side of the Atlantic and one on the other side. The US is a free market, let it bloom, let's have the $TRUMP coin and then we regulate. Ours is let's regulate and see what happens. What's happening now is, besides the criminal activities with crypto, it's also used by poor people in countries with inflation. So they put it into crypto, a very unsafe coin, and then turn it back into their currency. What we need to do is to create the Spinelli coin, which is the digital euro, and to have our own digital crypto competing so that we can impose international standards with safe asset from Europe.”