Speeches

Madam President, Madam Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! We need to stop being naive. China is at the same level in all technologies as we are, or further. China is the largest exporter not only of raw materials and electronic equipment, but also of cars and machinery. China is not the Cashcow Europe, but every sector, every large company in Europe must fear that competitors from China will take over their home market in the coming years. We are David, China is Goliath. And we finally need a policy that acknowledges and responds to this situation. Europe must no longer be pitted against each other by China, but must finally implement a common industrial strategy. Cutting red tape is not yet a strategy. If CATL wants to build in Europe, gladly, but 51% of the factory must belong to Europeans for technology transfer to take place. Europe must protect its companies from China and not let itself be kicked over the geopolitical square as a plaything. A European, independent industrial policy is finally needed.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Let's be honest: China is the largest new car market in the world, and it electrifies at a rapid pace. European manufacturers are losing market share every day. The numbers from August: BMW minus 13 percent, Audi minus 9 percent and Mercedes-Benz minus 20 percent. That is the core of the problem. Our industry is not weakening because we were too fast in electromobility. It weakens because others invest faster. And stop denouncing electromobility. I visited the Mercedes-Benz plant in Rastatt yesterday. This is where the new electric CLA is built, and it goes away like hot rolls. They now have to switch to three-shift operation because the thing sells so well and they can't keep up with the production. E-cars are just really good cars, and everyone knows that they are the future. That's why China is investing billions, and you're discussing whether it's right to reverse. If you want to drive fossil fuels forever and question the climate goals, then you are destroying the foundation of successful economic policy. Then there is no investment and planning security. It's clear: In a race where you're behind, you don't slow down. Accelerate to win. And we Greens, we want Europe to win this race.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! We discussed the relationship with China here this morning, and the situation is really frightening. Recently, a boss from a leading electrolyser manufacturer called me. We have the best technologies, but against subsidies from China, they simply don't stand a chance. He told me if we didn't do anything now, he'd have to shut up. Then he has to put people on the streets, and then we lose the technological connection in Europe. In many sectors – heat pumps, wind – this is exactly what it looks like. Dear Commission, we must not let our smart engineers go to the dogs. The truth is: So far, the European Commission has simply not taken care of it. The Clean industrial deal is there, but there is no plan for how we build the clean, how we build the green industry in Europe. For us greens it is clear: We will not allow our brightest minds to stand no chance. That is why we have put forward a plan: Buy European for Clean tech. We need a clean technology policy in the European Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Yesterday we decided to stop importing gas from Russia, but we must not just switch to dirty gas from Trump now. We need to seize the opportunities of sun and wind here on our continent. This requires a strengthening of the electricity grids, but also a strengthening of each individual household, because we can all benefit from the energy transition. For this, however, it is necessary to implement what has long been decided at European level. Citizens have a right to a digital electricity meter so that they can use electricity when it is cheap. It cannot be the case that only 4% of households in Germany have such a smart meter. When will it finally be possible for e-car owners to feed electricity into the grid? When is the booster for the batteries coming? These are all points that make network expansion cheaper. People have a right to benefit from the energy transition, and this report says so, so congratulations.

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen! Last year, Vladimir Putin received €22 billion from Europeans for gas and oil. And in the same year, Ukraine received €18 billion in military aid from Europeans. The financing of the butcher Putin, the dependency, Nord Stream: This must end once and for all! And now the European Commission is proposing something very courageous: Fossil imports from Russia are banned. That means bluntly and clearly: Nord Stream is over! I demand from this House, from the German Federal Government, from Minister for Economic Affairs Reiche, from Chancellor Merz, that they stand behind the plans of the European Commission without any ifs and buts. There must be no ambiguity in the Nord Stream ban. At the same time, Trump's dirty fracking gas is not a solution either. We have to rely on the expansion of renewables, on the expansion of networks, on storage in Europe. No more dependencies! Decommission Nord Stream and build Europe's green energy!

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! With the new law to end Russian gas, we are finally turning the money tap on Putin. You have to be clear and clear: Nord Stream is over once and for all. This is a victory for Ukraine. And it is also a green success, because we have been calling for this for a long time. This frees Europe from fossil blackmail and dependence. But beware! We must not now take the path into the next fossil trap. Expensive LNG imports from the US, from dictatorships such as Azerbaijan, are not a solution. They mean high prices, new dependencies, zero future. You're the next dead end. What we need now is a turbo for the expansion of power grids, of storage facilities, of renewables. The real answer is: out of the fossils and into the European solar and wind power. My expectation for you in Parliament is that you will also vote against Russian gas tomorrow.

Madam President, Mr Executive Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen! A year ago, we invited over 50 works councils from the steel industry to the European Parliament and their message was clear: Ensures that the modernization to green steel succeeds. This is the only way for the steel industry in Europe to have a future. That's exactly how it is! Let's not fool ourselves. We will not win the price war with cheap fossil steel from Turkey and China. We have to be able to do things that others can't. And that's to make green steel. This industrial plan – that is not enough. There is a lack of concrete measures. We now need lead markets for green steel, binding quotas for steel from Duisburg in the wind turbines in the North Sea. We now need security for companies that want to modernize, not just in a year. I want the works councils to continue to have work, so that their sons and daughters can also work in the steel industry if they want to. This is possible if we act now, put the laws on the table and invest in modernisation. Therefore, Mr. Executive Vice-President, hurry, the world is not waiting for us.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! No one in the industry denies that the future of the automotive industry is electric. The number of new registrations of electric cars in Europe rose by 37% in February. What are you doing? They are slowing down this trend with an attack on the Green Deal. They bow to a lobbying campaign against rules that have been known for eight years, making themselves small and weak as the EU Commission. They open Pandora's box and put the process in the hands of burner ideologues who want to tear the entire law to pieces. This creates maximum uncertainty among consumers, industry and investors. I mean, you're not even claiming to keep up with the competition from China. Congratulations! This is how your industry can be destroyed. The losers are the workers in the automotive industry. Expect the resistance of us Greens, because we are fighting for the future.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! This industrial deal is not bad, but it lacks something very crucial, namely the direction. If we want a strong, an innovative, a competitive industry, then we cannot rely on oil and gas and combustion engines – Europe has only sun and wind. And dear Mr Ehler, Europe does not have a business model if we do not have climate protection. The business model must be to invest in modernization, in innovation, in climate protection. And to the right, one must ask the question: Who do you want to buy the gas from? Prefer Putin or Trump? What is missing is a truly European industrial policy. If all 27 Member States cook their own soup, it will not work. But there's nothing in your plan about how we get the 27 capitals to pull together. So there needs to be some improvement. Europe can only stand up to Trump and Putin if we speak with one voice, including in industrial policy.

Madam President, Commissioner! Ladies and Gentlemen! It seems to have passed some, but Monday was an important deadline: According to the rules of the Paris Climate Agreement, the European Union would have its climate goal, its NDC, shall transmit. She didn't do that. It may not be a big offense, but to maintain credibility, we need to uphold and follow these very rules. So, Mrs. von der Leyen: Instead of the Green Deal and to tackle climate change, show the world that Europe leads! This means: Fulfill your international obligations! We now need a law for a new climate target. We have to follow the rules so that others do too. Ladies and gentlemen, at each meeting we are debating the climate crisis, floods, droughts and forest fires. And at the same time, coal, oil, and gas companies are collecting trillions of dollars in profits at the expense of those who are losing their homes, crops, roads, and livelihoods. I'm tired of it. This injustice must end! We must finally ask the polluters, the destroyers to pay. At the last climate conference, Europe and Germany also committed to raising $1 trillion a year for climate protection. Can we finally agree that we can no longer make any profits with climate destruction? The polluters have to pay for their dirty destruction. This mandate from the climate agreement must be implemented, and now.

I want to speak about the political prisoner in Azerbaijan. Roberta Metsola asked to lift the travel ban of our Sakharov finalist, Professor Gubad Ibadoghlu, so he can visit us in the European Parliament and get his medical treatment. The Azerbaijani regime did the opposite. They also cut ... Sorry, Mr President, this is not working right now ... (The President interrupted the speaker).

Mr President, colleagues, Vice-President of the Commission, first of all, I want to remind my colleagues from the EPP, even though Mr Weber already left, that the Green Deal is the idea of the conservative Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – it is your man on the moon project, and now you are stabbing your own Commission president in the back. Remember, it even took the Green votes to get your Commission president elected, so get your act together and support your Commission president, or we cannot take you seriously. I want to ask my ECR colleague to maybe think a little bit more about innovation than about cow farts. Innovation means investment into new technologies, technologies that enable new industries, new manufacturing. But you want to create a business environment of chaos, of unpredictability and of instability. You want to kill innovation. It boils down to the question of if you want to continue with an old business model that keeps us dependent on fossil imports, that gives power to people like Putin to skyrocket inflation in Europe for normal people and for businesses, or you choose a future oriented business model with home-grown renewables produced with European technology that brings down our energy prices, that creates local jobs and prosperity, and empowers our own innovative farmers, engineers, craftsmen and craftswomen. If you go for the past, Europe will lose. We choose the future.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! Yesterday, the heads of state and government met at the climate conference, and the European Union was represented by Viktor Orbán and Giorgia Meloni. I'd like to ask Ursula von der Leyen if she's embarrassed. Europe is the continent that warms the fastest of all. And now, after Donald Trump's election victory, it's up to us! Madam President von der Leyen, you must take the lead now. Unfortunately, you haven't done that yet. This climate conference must be a success. Negotiate with finance ministers so that Europe can put money on the table. And make sure that Europe announces its new climate target in the coming months, so that others follow suit. Frau von der Leyen, leadership means taking responsibility and organizing that it works.

Madam President, Commissioner! We Greens want the plants to continue to work, for the people in the automotive industry to have work. But anyone who pretends that we can simply continue to build burners does not tell the truth, he scatters sand in people's eyes. Yes, Europe's automotive industry is in crisis, but that's because of the combustion engine, not the electric car. We have to deal with the facts. The central problem of the European automotive industry is that China's car manufacturers are driving away from it. Their lead in battery technology and digitalization is enormous. One third of all German cars are sold in China, where every second new car is an electric car. The automotive industry is doing badly because it has put too much on the combustion engine and too little on e-mobility. What about e-fuels? They aren't even available to buy today. The global planning for e-fuel production over the next ten years is not even sufficient to cover ten percent of Germany's demand in the chemical industry, shipping and air traffic, and automobile traffic is not even included. I'm sorry. Whoever pretends that e-fuels will save the industry ridicules the workers who fear for their jobs. That there will be a transformation of the automotive industry is decided by the market. Global sales of electric cars increased by 25 percent at the beginning of 2024. Ladies and gentlemen, ‘We can't do it!’ must not be the motto of Europe as an automotive location. In order to save the plants and the automotive industry, we now need a feat of strength and technological clarity for the electric car. A European industrial policy for e-mobility must include a law for e-cars in corporate fleets.

Madam President, Commissioner! Today we are discussing the forest fires in Portugal and Greece. During the last week of the plenary session, we had to debate the floods in half of Europe. And unfortunately this makes it clear: The climate crisis has reached our latitudes. And it costs people lives in the here and now, it costs people their existence. And these forest fires, they just show anew: The climate crisis is the wealth-destroying machine of our time. Of course, we have to adapt, of course, but no flood polder in the world is deep enough and no extinguishing water tank large enough to withstand an unbridled climate crisis. We need real climate protection, real solutions. As the European Union, we have already achieved a number of things: The Green Deal and the expansion of solar and wind energy have been huge successes. Let us show in this House that we can do more, that we keep our promise to protect our citizens and their livelihoods.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The floods are unbearable, and my deepest thanks go to the firefighters, the security forces, who in part give their lives to save people. But the floods are not just a natural disaster; The intensity and frequency are man-made. We have to stick to the facts. The EU Commission itself says that the climate crisis in Europe has already caused damage of 650 billion euros. One degree more means that 7% more water absorption takes place in the air, and that means more rain and more flooding. Europe has already warmed by 2.3 degrees. Science has already established that the reason for the severity of these floods is the climate crisis. These are the facts, and it is incomprehensible to me that in times of falling asylum numbers we are talking about migration, but we are displacing these problems. The mother, the father and the root cause of all problems in the future is the climate crisis. As a father of two little daughters, it's important to me: The protection of their generation, their livelihood, their freedom is not an ideology. Climate protection is the task of our generation. Let's work with the facts! We need to improve climate protection.

Mr President, Commissioner! First of all, let's talk about the renewable energies that work. We already produce more energy, more electricity from sun and wind than from fossils, more electricity comes from wind power than is produced from gas. This is our European success story and it must continue and it must accelerate. Because it is also clear: The more electricity we produce with the domestic renewables, the faster we get the prices down for our industry and for our households. It's very simple: A renewable electricity system means competitiveness. Dependence on gas and coal means that energy prices are twice, three times higher than in other regions of the world. And when I hear now that you should bet on gas, then you have to notice two things about it: Firstly, Mario Draghi has just stated that the high energy prices in Europe are due to the consumption of gas, because of the dependence on gas. And secondly, we must then continue to transfer billions abroad, mostly to dictators – and we do not want that. The 18% that we are still importing from Russia is not a success, it is far too much. This is still funding the bombs targeting Ukraine, and this must stop. I hope that we can achieve a lot in the next few years, because there is a lot to do. Over the next five years, CO2emissions are reduced by 22%. The member states have presented plans that are absolutely not sufficient. Energy efficiency must increase by 11 percentage points. The renewables targets – there is still a gap of seven percentage points. If we want to win against dependence on dictators, against high energy prices and against the climate crisis, then we have to gain a tooth, then we have to close these gaps. That is the task of the next Commission.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Four and a half years ago, the European Parliament – and the Conservatives, by the way – declared a climate emergency here. We promised citizens that we would listen to their call for genuine climate protection and modernisation. And today? Today, a fossil alliance of conservatives to the far right is attacking European climate protection. Incidentally, also in the emissions trading system, in the transport sector, in the building sector. If it were up to you, we would not achieve the climate goals. You want it Green Deal and stifle our prosperity. But I tell you: Not with us! This is not the way to deal with the future, with the fates of citizens, with the planet and our prosperity. The women activists of Fridays for Future were supposed to sit in the spectator stands. You have it Green Deal We will fight, and this story will continue. And even if they are not allowed to be here and follow this democratic debate, they are Call Clearly: We must finally spend our money on climate protection and justice instead of on coal, oil and gas. But Rita and Rosmarie from the KlimaSeniorinnen are also sitting in the grandstand. They have achieved civilisational progress in court with heart and soul: Climate protection is now a human right. And it is true: Climate protection is the protection of humanity. The European elections will decide whether this will continue. Save the European climate protection! Save it Green Deal!

Mr President, it’s a point of order, really, to the debate, not speaking time. We have invited activists from the Fridays for Future movement. Some of them have been here already, in 2019, and they want to follow the debate. The services are not letting them in. I think they have the right to follow the debate about climate and to follow the debate about the future. This is unacceptable for us. Let them in.

Mr President, dear Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! This reform should be a big hit and make the European electricity market crisis-proof and fit for 100% renewable energy. But what came out? A rebuke and a rain of money for the coal and nuclear industries on taxpayers' backs. Expensive and uneconomic nuclear power is to be promoted in the same way as renewables, and unfortunately we are losing time and money for the energy transition. But a few good things we Greens were able to enforce: No one has to sit in the dark because of exploding electricity costs. The electricity barriers are banned throughout Europe, entity sharing, balcony solar becomes child's play. Soon we will be able to share homemade electricity with friends and family. We made that possible. We need to continue the Green Deal, which ensures prosperity. But instead of putting Europe on the track for climate-neutral prosperity, conservatives are clinging to the past and wanting to abolish the Green Deal. But we need more modernisation, more renewable energies and more climate protection in the next legislature.