Speeches

Mr President! Ladies and Gentlemen! Europe is in fierce competition. Inflation, high energy prices and above all bureaucracy make us strong. But many problems have also been caused by left-green politics for the first time. In Europe, the SPD and Green Laws – such as supply chain, deforestation regulation, burner-off – have adopted, promoted – and these are massive welfare brakes. Their red-green policy causes people to worry and that the political right-wing edge has doubled under a SPD chancellor, among other things, in Germany. Because you mentioned Friedrich Merz: It is therefore good and right that Friedrich Merz gives Germany confidence in growth again. The conservative center, which shows that it can do it best and can spread confidence and hope and departure. We do not want to vote with the right-wing populists, not in the European Parliament and not in the German Bundestag. But for this, the SPD and the Greens must move back into the political center. They make politics for minorities and not for majorities. The hard questions – migration, security – need to be resolved from the centre, with the exception of extremist margins. This agenda item is actually an appeal to the SPD and Greens: Don't get involved in your minority.Bubble. Show responsibility! Vote with the EPP here, vote with the CDU in the German Bundestag. Show responsibility! No one needs them from the outside.

Mr President! I believe that this debate has shown that we agree in principle that we have an instrument with the EIB that takes into account the political objectives that we all pursue in this House by a majority. I think that in President Hoyer's speech, right now, in the closing words, it has become clear once again how important it is that we have an instrument that enables economic policy through lending. Since I no longer wish to summarise this debate, I would also like to conclude by thanking you again, Mr Hoyer, as rapporteur, for your work this year. They have positioned this construct over the last decade in a way that was probably unimaginable before, and without the EIB, the EU's capacity to act would be much more limited. That is why, ladies and gentlemen, I say again: Thank you for the report. Thank you for the years of caring work you have done. You have made a great contribution to the EU's economic capacity to act, and I am delighted that we will be adopting this report tomorrow.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! I am also pleased that Mr Hoyer is here today. In this annual report, we have dealt very closely with the financial activities of the European Investment Bank. The European Investment Bank is one of the main investment institutions in the European Union and its mission is to strategically promote policy objectives. For example, the EIB is one of the world's largest climate finance providers. The past years and 2022 have been difficult years. After focusing on the post-coronavirus recovery in 2021, the focus today is on the geopolitical challenges posed by the conflict in Ukraine. The consequences of the Russian war of aggression are not only destruction and suffering, but of course also the disappearance of Ukraine as Europe's grain chamber. We are struggling here on our doorstep with rising food prices and bottlenecks in supply chains. The decommissioning of Russian gas flows has also led to unprecedented price spikes in energy markets, affecting our industry and households alike. At the same time, the war has also shown us financing gaps in the defence sector, which we should urgently close. Therefore, among other things, we encouraged the European Investment Bank in the report to explore whether and how to contribute to closing defence investment gaps. In other words: You, President Hoyer, have had a lot to do and you and the EIB will continue to have a lot to do. With the launch of EIB Global, you have launched a new business unit, a business unit that makes it possible to operate globally, i.e. outside the EU borders, for example to operate with climate programmes or to address migration issues. First of all, the European Investment Bank is also grateful for what has already been achieved. But we must not forget important issues. For example, our SMEs are suffering from rising energy prices, we are in an international competition, Europe must promote innovation and digitalisation. Because only prosperous companies are the right answer to radicalization and future prospects for our young people. As a Member of Parliament from the Lower Rhine, of course, I very much welcome the EIB's participation in the EU Just Transition Mechanism. Because the transition to a low-carbon economy can and must not only be supported by coal regions alone, such as the Rhenish district, but must be a solidarity-based and just undertaking. The future must also be considered. We have clearly called for the EIB to play an important and strategic role in the European Chips Act, i.e. the establishment of a European computer chip production. Every euro invested in research and development here is a euro for our future, and from the same perspective we see the role of EIB Global in the future. Global gatewaystrategy, since targeted investments in infrastructure and SMEs are intended to strengthen our strategic autonomy. Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I think we have come up with a good report, which in any case has been adopted by a large majority in committee. I would like to thank my shadow rapporteurs once again for their good and trusting cooperation and say: Thank you very much for this good work.

Mr President, Commissioner McGuinness, ladies and gentlemen! Today, more than 100 countries are working on central bank digital money. Europe and the European Central Bank are at the forefront of this currency race. In the U.S., congressmen and governors are talking about banning CBDCs. Here in Europe, we are talking about not only the need for the digital euro, but also what it should look like. And while Apple, Google, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard handle an immense part of European money transactions, they are all located outside the European Union. And it is good that we are working on a European solution. I see the digital euro as an opportunity. But it has to be done right. And he needs qualities so that he can succeed. Central bank digital money must be as anonymous as cash. It must be a gain of freedom and a driver of innovation, otherwise we do not need it. And the digital euro only works in conjunction with our commercial banks and not past them. It must not jeopardise the two-tier banking system. And we just talked about crypto-assets. The digital euro should be a reconciliation between the traditional financial and monetary system and the rapidly growing decentralised-finance-economy. We are currently in a phase in which the ECB is implementing decentralised solutions for this project, including: distributed—ledger—Technology is testing. And a decentralized solution as the underlying technology for the digital euro would be good. And a programmable digital euro would be at the top, because it could use blockchain-based technology. stablecoins how Euro Tether, circled eurocoins and at all keep up with many other blockchain developments and would also offer advantages over SEPA. One thing the digital euro should not include, as was read this morning: The digital euro should be free of charge. It must be free of charge.

Mr President! I believe that summarising this debate shows the full breadth of a new economic area that is very dynamic, that is still young, that is at the beginning. And the points raised that are still to be solved – yes, of course they are still to be solved, because this area is young. The questions were: Do we still have time or does MiCA have to come into force faster? Of course, the actors in this area must be able to adapt to MiCA. Of course, we still need a few months for companies in Europe to have time to adapt their company to MiCA. Do we take environmental considerations into account enough? I think so. We are bringing them into a new economic branch for the first time, without wanting to ban technological consensus mechanisms, without interfering in technology, but being open to new developments. Because we have to see one thing: The world is not waiting for us. In America, billions of dollars are invested in metaverses year after year. Within these metaverses is paid with NFT, is paid with blockchain money, is paid on the Web3 with NFT. We must protect all this and try to ensure that this can also happen here in Europe. And that is why I cannot really understand the criticism of Mr Breyer and the pirates. In any case, MiCA will not make a Bitcoin donation to Ukraine impossible. I believe that, in the end, we have found a compromise which, by means of this Parliament's decision tomorrow, will set in motion a framework that will enable innovation and growth in Europe, without undermining opportunities. And in this sense, I ask again tomorrow for support for this proposal.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! With tomorrow's vote on the crypto regulation, a long and complex process is coming to an end. With tomorrow's vote, we will achieve a common success, a success, dear colleagues, for which we have fought for a long time. And with tomorrow's final vote on the crypto regulation, we are putting the European Union at the top of the world's rankings. So far, the legal situation with crypto has been comparable to Wildwest. Rules protecting consumers from fraud and danger were de facto non-existent. This is about to end. We've seen the FTX case where an exchange burned $30 billion and almost triggered a Lehman Brothers moment, just because there was no regulation to prevent it. MiCA – Markets in Crypto Assets – repairs trust damaged by cases such as FTX, and through this balanced legal framework we create stability in a young industry. What is this legal framework? What have we designed? First of all, we classify coins in order to be able to judge them. Then we also clarify information rights of consumers, and that's why issuers of coins must now whitepaper They need to address the underlying technology, risks, exchanges, return rights, and more in order to be admitted to trading. Also, when approving new coins, it must be checked whether the business model does not endanger currency stability. Facebook, with 2.4 billion users, would never have received such approval for the planned Libra project. We have Non-fungible tokens Excluded from MiCA. In this area, MiCA mainly addresses only the crypto asset service provider, which provide services to NFT. This is a good solution, just as we have ensured and found a competent supervisory architecture between EBA and ESMA. Finally, the environmental impact aspect was discussed very controversially with us in the negotiating team. We have found a good solution without calling for a ban on proof-of-work to have to resort. Instead, publishers must comply with strict disclosure requirements on energy consumption and environmental impacts. I believe that on the basis of this data, everyone should be able to decide for themselves whether to crypto asset Buy it or not. Ladies and gentlemen, the tokenization continues. Blockchain technology enables groundbreaking innovations. With MiCA, we have the right answer. I would like to thank all the shadow rapporteurs for intellectually high-class discussions. We have ventured into areas that have never been the subject of political debate before. I also thank the Commission for the good cooperation in these complex discussions and ask for broad support tomorrow.