Debate contributions by Roman HAIDER

Madam President, Commissioner, let's talk about Tacheles. The airlines are to spend huge sums on sustainable fuels. And to get them involved, the Commission and the Council are ready to sacrifice the rights of 440 million European consumers: free hand luggage, automatic compensation from three hours delay – this was normal for years. Now it should be four hours, and the hand luggage remains questionable. And all in order for the airlines to swallow the higher costs of biofuels. Instead of €13,000 per tank of an Airbus, airlines will pay up to €150,000 per tank. These costs are passed on and passed on to passengers one-on-one, and for this they are also deprived of rights. And that should make Europe stronger and better? This commission under the unelected and completely incapable Ursula von der Leyen deliberately steers Europe against the wall. It's enough! Every hour Ursula von der Leyen speaks and speaks for Europe is an hour too much. Vote in favour of our motion of censure on Thursday.

Madam President, Ten years of the Paris Climate Conference, and the left half of Parliament – with the sympathetic voices of the European People’s Party – applauds a work of destruction that is driving our economy into the abyss. Germany and Austria are facing an economic catastrophe, France is ungovernable – and what is the EU doing? It is sending even more money abroad for pointless climate measures. $300 billion a year, they say, and tomorrow this House is demanding that it actually be $1,300 billion a year. Who's gonna pay for this? At least not the Americans. They're out. The European taxpayers, of course. EU countries are the largest donors in the world: EUR 35.8 billion in 2023 alone. That is nine times more than we spend on education, seven times more than on infrastructure and 18 times – 18 times! – more than protecting our borders. And now you want to do even more, while the real problems – mass migration, job loss, loss of wealth – are fed with peanuts. This is not climate protection, this is insane!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! I say it very clearly: This 2040 climate target – 90 per cent emission reductions – is not ambitious, but an encroachment by the Commission that threatens our lifestyle. Billions of euros in costs, industries fleeing abroad, jobs being lost, families falling into poverty - who decided? Not the workers, not the peasants, not the people – no, it is an unelected bubble of bureaucrats who are embarrassed that they only get enough applause from some international green climate NGOs. This seems to be more important than the problems we experience every day in our Member States. Hundreds of regulations for counting, increasing costs and avoiding CO2molecules, but no regulations against uninhibited mass migration, overburdening of social systems, inflation, mass rapes or aggressive political Islam. All that matters is the good green feeling of the few bureaucrats in their ivory tower. This is not leadership, this is arrogance. This policy weakens Europe. Ursula von der Leyen promises prosperity and supplies need. It praises freedom, but puts citizens in chains. We need a Europe of hope, of opportunities, of freedom and not this green socialism that is destroying Europe. My appeal is not addressed to the Commission - which is lost under this leadership anyway - my appeal is addressed to the Heads of State and Government. Tell Ursula von der Leyen: It's enough! Reject this madness! Fight for the Europe you took over from your predecessors, which strengthens freedom rather than crushing citizens with bureaucracy.

Mr President! I say it very clearly: The ban on new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035 was one of the dumbest ideas and stupidest decisions of the EU in its entire history. It was also a decision with particularly negative consequences for the whole of Europe. With one blow, the EU has virtually pulled the floor under the wheels of the European automotive industry. Over the past six months, 51,000 jobs have been lost in the automotive industry in Germany alone. Loss of value creation and jobs – these are the effects of this nonsensical ban. In Europe, sales of electric cars are stagnating – and it is no wonder. E-cars are expensive in terms of purchase and consumption. This forced e-mobility is anti-social and massively restricts citizens. Now is the time to put an end to this madness. A few months ago, EPP leader Manfred Weber said: I promise the Europeans the end of the combustion engine. Only in the vote on the UN climate conference last Monday did the entire EPP vote again with the left-wing climate fanatics for an acceleration of the combustion engine phase-out. So much is obviously worth the EPP word – obviously nothing at all. What's the name of it? By their deeds you shall measure them. The EPP also has the opportunity to repent and repent. Share with us Patriots against the incinerator ban, then you can be taken seriously again. Otherwise, you will only be foam rackets and majority buyers for the left-wing fanatics.

Madam President, The core of this report is simple: The EU needs more money for the energy transition, for armaments, for everything. And where is it supposed to come from? Of the private savings, new debts, new EU taxes, even more centralization. The Green Deal It is a gigantic flop. The energy transition has failed, and ruinous energy prices and a depressed economy remain. The borrowing of NextGenerationEU was in breach of contract and has long since become a billion-dollar burden. And now we want to expand this madness. Citizens and businesses are groaning under record taxes and levies, and you really can't think of anything better than asking for even more: even more power for a headquarters that has long since spiraled out of control. Citizens are rightly wondering if they are still in comfort in Brussels, and the answer is: No, they're not. (The speaker rejected questions about the ‘blue card’ procedure by Lukas Sieper and Bogdan Rzońca.)

Madam President, For 12 years, the EU has not been able to agree on new air passenger rights – 12 years. Now suddenly comes a regulation that worsens rather than improves the rights of passengers. Instead of being three hours late as before, compensation should only be paid after four hours in the future; This is a clear step backwards in consumer rights and consumer protection. How can such a thing happen? Well, quite simply: It is a dirty deal between the EU Commission and the aviation industry. The airlines want to save billions in compensation payments, and the Commission needs the industry's support for its Green Deal, for the failed Green Deal, by the way, because completely unrealistic targets have been adopted for sustainable aviation fuels. These are up to 13 times more expensive, hardly available and would have cost the industry billions. In return, the Commission is now watering down passenger rights, and this so-called declaration by the aviation industry, which is used to talk about the whole thing, is actually from the Commission itself. I am not even reproaching you, Commissioner, I even believe that you are very, very embarrassed and disgusted. This procedure that smells, no, it smells like Ursula von der Leyen: She ordered the whole thing to preserve her disastrous Green Deal and thus her face. It is a scandal, a scandal paid for by European consumers.

Mr President! What are we talking about here? In truth, this agenda item exists only to satisfy the Socialists' need for more rules and more money. This need of the socialists for the money of other people is well known, but we must first repair the individual traffic, which the socialists have almost driven to the wall with green and black help anyway. What about the air passengers? What about the drivers? Everything gets more expensive, everything gets more regulated, but nothing gets better. There is nothing with the blessing and progress that the EU is supposed to bring to its citizens. Whether the tram in Brussels operates according to the same rules as the tram at my home in Linz is not a European matter. Public transport is a matter for the country. Public transport is regulated where it happens, and certainly not in the back rooms of the EU Commission. Public transport still works halfway. So keep your fingers off and don't drive this against the European bureaucracy wall! It is enough at some point, this constant demand for rules, rules, subsidies and even more subsidies. It only got us where we are now. Just leave it!

Mr President! The CO2CBAM is nonsense. Emissions trading is nonsense. All this CO2Pricing is complete nonsense. A worldwide unique nonsense. By the way: The whole world laughs at this EU nonsense. This bullshit makes energy more expensive, it makes industrial products more expensive, it makes people’s lives more expensive – and now CBAM also makes imported goods more expensive. And by the way, it is also a massive impediment to trade agreements. This is shown by the stalled negotiations with India. There is only one profiteer of this nonsensical procedure, one – and that is the EU Commission. They have wanted their own tax revenue for a long time. CBAM is like Christmas and Easter together. New customs duties, new revenues directly into the Commission's budget in Brussels. We all pay for the colliery: the consumer, the industry, the export industry. But most importantly, the Commission gets its pocket money. CBAM: This is cOnsumer burden at maximum. Maximum consumer burden – nothing else.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! There are circles in the European Parliament who want to switch everything in Europe to a war economy. By the way, they are exactly the same ones who wanted to replace trucks with cargo bikes five years ago. These colleagues are lost anyway, so my appeal is to the MEPs of the European People's Party and to the Social Democrats. The EU, firstly, was founded as an economic union with the aim of creating lasting peace through shared prosperity. Second, economic recovery and prosperity require a functioning and efficient infrastructure. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the DNA of the EU, a DNA that has already been severely affected by the harmful focus on any utopian left-green climate targets. As an Austrian, I have been committed to the expansion of both the Brenner line and the Pyhrn-Schober axis for years. These are projects that would provide great added value both for my home country Austria and for the entire Central European area. Here, an increase in European funds can really provide added value for citizens and businesses, much more than the three-digit million euro support to the green NGO swamp in the environment of the Directorate-General for Climate. This is and will remain a scandalous waste of money. As spokesman for the Patriots, I can only underline that stability and planning security for our infrastructure projects must not be sacrificed at the altar of any political fashion.

Mr President! The Savings and Investment Union is nothing more than a scam at the expense of citizens. The Commission is not concerned with free access to capital markets, but with using private savings for its own questionable policy projects – projects such as the Green Deal or the readiness 2030 upgrade programme. Instead of looking for expensive means in the financial markets, the private savings of the citizens should now be available. If you were really interested in investing, you could deregulate the financial markets or introduce educational initiatives on financial literacy. But you prefer to create a bureaucratic system that should take away the decision-making power of the citizen over his own capital. With a pliers grip of the digital euro and the Savings and Investment Union, you want full access to information about the private assets of EU citizens. Let me tell you very clearly: Savers and investors have to decide for themselves what they use their money for, not the European Commission and certainly not Ursula von der Leyen.

Madam President, With the ban on combustion engines and ever stricter emission standards, the EU is deliberately destroying the European car industry, and because of the emission standards, our car manufacturers must even reduce CO2 emissions.2-take out loans with the competition, and then threaten fines of at least 15 billion euros. And who now thinks he is saving the European car industry if he simply postpones these fines by a few years, I say to him: The only ones who can expect help from this policy are the Chinese carmakers; They will wipe our European car industry off the market if the EU continues to stick to the Green Deal. €1 trillion in value added, one third of private R&D investment, 14 million jobs: This is still the case in the European car industry today. And that is being destroyed with this ideology-driven, downright religiously delusional net-zero-emissions-green-deal policy. You have to stop this, Commissioner. You have to stop the Green Deal. Then we don't need action rescue plans, then our industry will be able to survive on its own.

Madam President, European industry is in an existential crisis and the EU, with its completely insane Green Deal policy, is primarily responsible for this. Excessive energy prices and ever-new EU rules are destroying the livelihoods of industry. In this situation, one should think that the EU is ready to finally really counteract, that the EU is ready for a real policy change, that the EU is ready to save industry – one should think, but does not happen; It just goes on as before. It's going on stubbornly, and that's the whole truth behind your bus: continue as before. And the worst part is that you know that too. They know very well that it is the Green Deal that is destroying our economy. You know you've been following a wrong path for five years, but admitting that would mean losing your face, and that's why you're continuing as before. That's why, out of vanity, you'd rather sacrifice our economic foundations and the future of our youth. This bus, these changes, is far too little and is far too late.

Madam President, The US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement is an opportunity for Europe. Or better yet: This is an opportunity for Europe. It's the chance to finally break up with this crazy climate religion. It's the chance to put an end to the climate madness, to the nonsensical CO2-Pricing - one CO2-Pricing that drives up energy prices. It's a chance to put an end to the destructive Green Deal. One Green DealIt is the one who cuts off the air from our economy, destroys our agriculture, burdens our citizens. And now a message to the incorrigible climate believers, to the proclaimers of the upcoming climate apocalypse: In addition to the EU, there are only five countries that have committed to the Paris climate agreement. The EU and these five countries account for only 12.5% of CO2 emissions.2emissions. Do you really think this has any effect on the climate? Therefore: Let's take the chance, let's give Europe a future again, let's get out of the senseless Paris climate agreement!

Mr President! The hottest year in measurement history, so measured probably among other things by these several hundred measurement stations in the UK and the USA, which no longer exist and whose data have been fictionally extrapolated. Or from such measuring stations, which you have placed directly in heat islands, i.e. in the middle of the cities, where it is always warmer anyway than in the countryside. In Washington, President Trump is being looted because of the cold wave in the Capitol and not outdoors, it's snowing in Hawaii, and the Southern Hemisphere is experiencing a cold summer like rarely before. But the united believers of the climate church, the hysterics of the last days, who are already calling for the climate apocalypse again, and they demand measures, even more of these measures that ruin our economy, measures that destroy our economic livelihoods, measures that, above all, do not benefit the climate in view of a only seven percent share of Europe in the global CO2ejection. None of these senseless Green dealMeasures also have only some influence on the climate. They only cost huge sums of money, they make us poorer, and they thus rob us of the resilience, the resilience, to cope with the effects of climate change. If Europe is to have a future, then we need a 180-degree turnaround. Then it must read: Stop this harmful Green Deal!

Mr President! For an impact assessment of the Green Deal, you simply have to read a newspaper once or get out of your Brussels bubble once. The consequences of the Green Deal will then be clearly shown to you: Business closures, business failures, record-breaking energy prices, rising unemployment, farmer deaths, loss of purchasing power, dizzying public debt – these are all the consequences of the Green Deal. Let's talk plainly: With the destructive Green Deal, there will be no international competitiveness. This should have become clear even to the most stubborn climate fanatic! Either Green Deal or Competitiveness. Let's take a look at the costs of this crazy green deal: It is calculated in trillions. Billions - that was yesterday. Billions in costs for a completely counterproductive program. And where will these trillions come from if we start destroying our own economy? What if we start destroying agriculture? What if we really drive the industry out of Europe? Do you want to make even more non-contractual debt? Or higher membership fees? Or new EU taxes? Or all three together – that would probably even be right for you! Let's finally face reality: Restoring competitiveness can only be achieved without a Green Deal! So go away with this Green disaster.

Mr President! Has there been any foreign interference in the elections in Romania? Possibly. Were social media channels used for this? Also very possible. The deliberate influence of voters through the media is as old as democracy itself. Every responsible citizen should be aware of this, and then this is not problematic for democracy. But one thing is without question a serious threat to democracy, and that is censorship, state censorship, the restriction of media freedom through censorship. This is what the EU is doing with the Digital Services Act. A red line is crossed. It is legitimate to resist foreign influence, but censorship must never be the means of choice. Unfortunately, the EU has embarked on a highly problematic path here. With prohibitions and censorship, democracy will not be saved; With bans and censorship, democracy will be destroyed.

Mr President! This declaration is nothing more than a document of total policy failure, the admission of total failure of EU policy. We heard the wake-up call, it says. Business as usual is no longer an option. And what's next? Will there finally be a fundamental change of policy in the EU? A departure from this completely erroneous climate policy or from the destructive agricultural policy, from an agricultural policy that turns Europe from a food exporter to an importer? Nothing like that is planned. Europe should be debureaucratized, is also there to read. And yet the deforestation ordinance is adhered to, a bureaucratic monster unlike any other. And where are the proposals to stop the self-inflicted energy price explosion, a price explosion that takes the air away from industry and citizens? Nothing like that is required. More Green Deal is called for – exactly. Even more centralization, even more money to Brussels. I'll stick with this: This declaration is not a restart document. It is a document of the total failure and utter failure of this EU policy.

Madam President, The Letta report correctly identifies many problems of the internal market: rising energy prices, inadequate infrastructure, especially for high-performance railway lines, lagging behind in future technologies, overbureaucratisation in particular. That's all right; It's not new, but it's true. As correct as the analysis and diagnosis in the Letta report is, unfortunately, the suggestions for improvement are just as wrong. That was the case with the Draghi report, and that is also the case with the Letta report. There is only one thing they can think of to solve the EU's problems: Even more EU, even more powers for Brussels, even more EU institutions, a new fiscal capacity, the Capital Union, and that is precisely the problem. Even more powers for Brussels means even more bureaucracy, even more useless rules, even less flexibility for Member States. It is high time for new ways, for less centralism, for less EU, for more flexibility for Member States, more subsidiarity and more freedom.

Madam President, Mercedes is serious and wants to sell all car dealerships. VW questions German locations and does not rule out redundancies. Problems with BMW, production is completely shut down. Fiat plant in Poland closed. Fiat's Mirafiori plant is closed from June to September. These were just a few headlines from the past few months. The European automotive industry is dying. And what does the EU do? It is now like the Amen in prayer: Whenever the European Commission makes a decision, it is the wrong one. This is especially true in the automotive sector. Ideology instead of openness to technology is obviously the motto. And the ban on combustion engines is an outgrowth of this policy. And with this purely ideology-driven Green Deal, the European automotive industry is being destroyed. And to top it all, carmakers are now facing billions in fines because of EU rules. And now they are also trying to keep the competition away with punitive tariffs. This is the completely wrong way. This does not work with CBAM, with CO2‐Border adjustment mechanism, this will not work in the automotive market either. The right way would be to strengthen the domestic industry. But instead, our industry is being destroyed by ever new and increasingly nonsensical regulations. The whole Green Deal is in fact a programme to destroy the European economic foundations. The Green Deal will go down in history as a beacon project of stupidity and ideological stupidity.

Mr President! Strengthening the role of Digital Services Act and protecting democracy and freedom online: The title of today's debate alone is a blatant mockery. It's pure cynicism, a censorship law like this. Digital Services Act in one breath with the protection of freedom and democracy. China, North Korea and Iran have apparently sponsored this law. This does not protect democracy and freedom online; This will destroy democracy and freedom in the online world. This is one of the most anti-freedom and authoritarian laws in the history of the EU, and with completely vague and undefined facts such as hate speech and disinformation, this law is also a slap in the face of the rule of law. If the Commission were really serious about freedom and democracy, you would immediately have to call for the abolition of the Digital Services Act But in reality, you are terrified of real freedom of speech. That's why you created this law in the first place, because real freedom of speech is a thorn in your side.