Debate contributions by Jan-Christoph OETJEN

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! It took us ten years to get this law, this single European sky, off the ground. Not because it would have taken us a long time here in Parliament, but because it was up to the Member States, which have been hiding behind national competences for a very long time. These national competences have served to conceal the fact that there are state monopolies in air traffic control in the Member States, which they do not want to see affected. And the truth is: We don't really touch them now either. What we are doing is not a reform, but a reframing, but it addresses important issues. We finally get this performance review, that is finally a benchmark for air traffic control – whether they work well, whether they have enough people, how it works with the delays, which – not always, but very often – air traffic control is also to blame. We have a capacity issue that can be addressed by this, and therefore we can agree at the end of this reform. But it is far from what we actually hope for and what we need so that we can finally manage the delays in Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Protecting the external borders is a very, very important concern for us Free Democrats, for two reasons: On the one hand, we have the objective that we do not need internal border controls, that we have the free movement of goods and persons in the Schengen area. And secondly, we have the goal of bringing order to migration, because for far too long we had too little order. That is why it is so important that we are the first to properly finance Frontex. That is why it is important that the Commission makes its proposal and says: Frontex needs to be increased. But the funds must also follow, ladies and gentlemen! And in the budgetary discussions we will have to make up the money, and there is the wrong signal from the Member States who say we want to spend less money on Frontex. And the second is that we must finally implement the Asylum and Migration Pact. We decided on it this year. That was a good move. I myself co-negotiated on the screening regulation, which the Commissioner also mentioned earlier. And it is precisely this screening regulation that must be implemented as quickly as possible at the beginning, so that we have a clear procedure at the external borders on how we deal with people who want to come to us in Europe. This also means that our borders are properly protected.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! For us as liberals, the goal is to keep the European automotive industry competitive – competitive in order to secure jobs and create value for the future. That is why, in my view, it is important that we do not put the automotive industry under further pressure in the short term with impending fines. This applies not only to manufacturers, but also to the supplier industry in particular. In the medium term, however, we must do more, and I do not believe that subsidies and tariffs are the answer, ladies and gentlemen. I believe that we now urgently need a revision of the CO2fleet limits and I expect the Commission to bring forward the revision foreseen for 2026 to 2025. We should ambitiously use all technologies to achieve decarbonisation. We don't want to change goals. We want climate-neutral mobility, but we want to change the way we achieve this goal, ladies and gentlemen! It is already quite obvious that two thirds of the electric cars sold today are hybrid. But that we exclude precisely these hybrid models in our European market by our CO2Fleet regulation is insane. That is why we urgently need to change that.

Madam President, Commissioner! For us liberals, for the Renew Europe Group, the Schengen area is one of the most important achievements in this European Union. And that has also been one of the driving forces behind why we here in this House have given so much thought to the European Pact on Asylum and Migration in the last legislative period and have finally adopted it. And now it is a matter of putting it into effect and implementing it in the Member States, ladies and gentlemen. Because it is a basic requirement for us to be able to do without internal borders in the Schengen area. They have now been introduced by Germany at short notice, and I would like to make it clear at this point that this can of course only be a temporary solution. It can only be a short-term solution that must come to an end soon. Of course, we want to defend freedom of movement in the Schengen area. But for this we need good protection of the external borders. To do this, we need to strengthen Frontex. And for that, by the way, we need more resources for Frontex and not less resources for Frontex, as proposed by the Member States. To achieve this, we need the Asylum and Migration Pact, which is being implemented. And for this we need better police control and cooperation, which was already initiated in the last legislative term. These are basic prerequisites for the Schengen area to be able to live. And then we don't need border controls, ladies and gentlemen!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! What is happening right now in Hungary is that the Hungarian government, Viktor Orbán, is trying to destroy the Schengen area from within – this greatest achievement, one of the greatest achievements of the European Union – that many of our citizens are experiencing, using and appreciating. I believe that with this single-handedness that the Hungarian government is doing there, with the possibility for Russians and Belarusians to enter the Schengen area, Orbán may become the biggest smuggler of the European Union. This is an unacceptable process that we must not allow. We must make it clear that this Hungarian government must urgently withdraw this regulation. Because I do not want to jeopardise the fact that the Hungarians, this people who fought for freedom from socialism, that this people will need passports again in the future if they want to travel in Europe, that there will be border controls with Hungary again - I do not want all this. But that is exactly what Orbán is putting at risk, and that is why this regulation must be withdrawn in order to preserve the Schengen area for the future.

Madam President, Commissioner! Our thoughts are with the victims of Solingen, of course. But at such a moment it is important to remember that in Europe security can only be guaranteed if we all work together, because attacks such as those in Solingen have also happened in various other places. And that is why I want to remind you at this point that we have made a lot of progress in the joint fight against terrorism, in the cooperation of the security authorities in Europe, and that we have taken a big step just before the summer, including with the Asylum and Migration Pact. But I would also like to point out that the fight against radicalisation is a crucial one, because many of them are radicalising in Europe and are not coming to Europe as terrorists. But those who might want to come to Europe as terrorists, as criminals, we have laid a good foundation for this with the European Asylum and Migration Pact – with the screening regulation, where we check what these are for people, with border procedures at the European external border. And it must now be a matter of putting this European Pact on Asylum and Migration into practice, implemented by the Member States, because the truth is that this is not yet the case. During the European Championships in Germany, border controls were already carried out in Germany and about 30,000 people were prevented from entering Germany who wanted to enter irregularly. How can it be that people can come to Germany, to a country that is in the middle of Europe, that has no real external borders? If we fail to ensure that the Member States actually implement the Pact, we will not solve the problem either. That's why it's now about implementation: The Commission needs to put pressure to make this happen as quickly as possible.