Debate contributions by Kai TEGETHOFF

Madam President, the world we designed our politics for no longer exists. Power politics are back. International cooperation is framed as weakness, and many Europeans wonder if the EU is still strong enough to shape this new world order. It is. And now we have a unique opportunity to prove that the EU‑India trade agreement is not just another trade deal. Together, the EU and India represent around 25 % of global GDP and 2 billion consumers. In a world where alliances are shifting, we should take any chance at supporting the fight for democracy, for climate neutrality and for social justice. Every improvement is welcome. And we very much know that if Europe steps back, others will step in, with very different intentions. India is already deepening ties with the Emirates while keeping China and Russia close. They are moving fast. We cannot afford to hesitate. At Volt, we believe Europe must stop doubting itself. Colleagues, we need to answer this fundamental question. Do we still believe Europe can act, or do we accept a future where we only react?

Madam President, why are we even debating if people should get compensated when their plane is delayed? Of course they should. But this isn't just about delays or compensation, is it? It is about how we do politics. Passenger rights have successfully protected people, not profits. Now, some governments want to change that. But let me be clear: Parliament says no. No to less compensation. No to charging families extra just so that children can sit next to their parents. And no to EUR 50–80 fees for a small cabin bag. And also no to systems that make it nearly impossible for people to claim what they are entitled to. Colleagues, we know what is right. As Parliament, we are elected by the people and for the people. And, with votes like this, we prove that.

Mr President, Trump wants one thing: a divided Europe, because a divided Europe is easier to break. And the saddest part is that some people in this House are playing along. But a united Europe is a stronger Europe. Joint climate disaster funds, cross-border rescue teams, early warning systems built together – that is Europe at its best, united in crisis, stronger than any single nation could ever be alone. Trumpists sees this strength and they fear it. They are pulling the oldest puppet trick in the book: praise authoritarians and whisper to conservatives that courage is optional. And too many of you are falling for it. Worse, some of you don't even fall, you follow. If you agree with them, just say it clearly. If you don't, prove it. We need a United States of Europe now. It is not naive; it is courage, cultivate it.

Mr President, 1 in 25 people at the COP30 was a fossil fuel lobbyist – the same lobbyists who are getting conservatives and the far right in this House to do their dirty work for them. It is you, more than half of this Parliament, that spent months weakening Europe's climate targets, so that we would show up at COP30 with as little leverage as possible. As a result, we looked unsure and smaller than we are, at a time where the US has left a gap for climate leadership that Europe should fill. It is citizens that are victims of your sabotage. Colleagues, instead of chasing short‑sighted political wins, let's focus on what the world expects from the EU. As citizens increasingly suffer under the intensifying climate crisis, will you keep wasting their money for tactical lies or join the fight for a liveable planet?

Mr President, German car manufacturing – or, in von der Leyen words, 'the pride of Europe' – is fighting for its life. We are watching others win a race we should be leading. Why? Because we have an establishment that is terrified of losing voters to the right. Those who called this debate today are in the business of fear tactics and, as we saw in the introduction already, also of plain lies. They are far more obsessed with protecting corporate interests than the workers they claim to speak for. Meanwhile, the world is going electric – with or without us. Colleagues, every moment you delay, you are actively destroying our industrial base and handing market share to Beijing. Stop the foot dragging, not electrification – your hesitation is costing jobs. Let's put all of Europe's talent and expertise into our car industries' electric future. Commit to the 2035 target, and let's prove and ensure that 'made in Europe' still means 'number one'.

Mr President, heatwave, Hitzewelle, ola de calor – omnipresent last summer, this summer and probably every future summer from now on. But still, we are not taking adequate action to fight the root cause of the problem: climate change. Heat wave after heat wave. Commission President von der Leyen yesterday talked here about heatwaves and I hear and support what you say, Commissioner, but at the same time, the Commission's missing action showcases in a hurtful way that there actually is no commitment to act, no strategy to address health problems of our citizens and overheated cities. No credible action on droughts, no credible attempts to save our forests, water bodies, or to restore nature. No political will to change our ways of life accordingly. Standing ovations for the difficult and dangerous work of firefighters are nice, but they don't even address the core of the problem. We need to act, step up our efforts on mitigation and finally start to actually adapt to the ongoing climate change.

Mr President, 51 years of Turkish troops on EU ground is shattering trauma for Cyprus. For half a century, the island and its people have remained divided. A European capital cut in half. But the deeper tragedy is that generation after generation of Cypriots have been let down. Let down by leaderships that lack courage, let down by politicians who preferred nationalism over compromise and let down by a world that treats the status quo as acceptable. Europe cannot claim to defend international law while tolerating its violation in Cyprus. If we want peace, justice and European unity, we must act with clarity, urgency and political will. Pick up the threat from 2017 and work towards a peaceful, united, free and independent federal future. Cyprus deserves much more than commemoration.

Mr President, what could the EU look like in 2030? 500 million citizens in the best and most resilient democracy in the world. A new union with more countries. For us, in the current 27, it means economic opportunities and a stronger defence union; 35 countries collaborating together. But how will the EU work with 35 countries? With 35 countries, it will be totally impossible. There's only one solution: reform. Treaty reform. Let's create a Europe 2.0 with a European constitution, where you can vote for the person who best represents you, no matter where you live. A Europe that speaks with one voice. Not ruled by national egos but by common interests. In other words, a new Europe that is bigger and better.

Mr President, rail is the backbone of public transport in Europe, or at least it should be. But as long as buying train tickets feels like navigating through a maze, rail will struggle to compete. As long as passengers do not enjoy full passenger rights protection, people will not trust rail. Not because it's slow, but because it's hard to access. The upcoming initiatives on rail ticketing must finally deliver. One journey, one ticket. No excuses. We need open data, fair and clear rules, and a level playing field for all operators and platforms, public and private. Passengers should not need five apps and a PhD to book a train. Let's get away from rail being the most frustrating mode of transport. Let's make rail the easiest way to travel.

Madam President, four days ago, I witnessed President Erdoğan's visit to Nicosia and experienced how Turkey is imposing their rules and religion on the northern part of Cyprus. I saw a small group of Cypriots exercising their constitutional right to protest, standing up against the repression of Turkey. I saw how this peaceful protest was forcefully removed from the street and protesters being arrested by a police force that is directly connected to the Turkish military. I experienced myself how authoritarian regimes spread distrust among citizens and how it feels to constantly be observed and followed by undercover police. Cypriots deserve better. Cypriots deserve to find together in one united bi-zonal, bi-communal, federal Cyprus. No matter which language they speak. Turkish President Erdoğan needs to stop the constant indoctrination and interference in Cyprus, stop further escalation and return to the UN framework, open the promised crossing points and bring the two communities closer together. A peaceful, democratic, unified Cyprus, that's all we want.

Mr President, imagine the electric vehicle market as a football match: the EU against the rest of the world. In the first half, we slept, we fell behind by one goal, our team, our industry was not competitive. Now, we are in the second half. We need to catch up, and the team came out of the dressing room motivated and full of drive. The sales numbers in 2025 for electric vehicles are reaching record highs and, despite a clear strategy, suddenly the coach is waving the team in the opposite direction, letting go of their own strategy and goals and creating huge uncertainty for the sector, emitting tens of megatonnes more of CO2 emissions, having to import billions of euros' worth more of fossil fuels, slowing down the momentum to finally get the small, cheap European electric vehicles on the market that we desperately need to score a goal. This proposal leaves us even further behind. Soon, China will control the entire battery and charging supply chain. The new score is 0-2, and the coach is standing at the sideline dancing and cheering loudly. What a disgrace!

Madam President, a sustainable, interconnected and secure Trans-European Transport Network. That is what we want. In reality, it in parts often still looks rather fragmented, underfunded and vulnerable. That does not necessarily apply to road, but for rail most certainly. Rail infrastructure would be so important. Rail infrastructure means connectivity to have a fully functioning single market for business and citizens. Rail infrastructure means cohesion, linking regions and leaving no country behind. And rail infrastructure means security, especially in times of crises, to move goods and troops wherever we need them. Commissioner, I agree with you fully. We need to invest in a modern cross-border rail infrastructure for citizens, for the economy and for our security. So we need to complete the TEN-T network as soon as possible. We really need to strengthen the Connecting Europe Facility. A strong Europe moves on strong rail connections. Let's build them.

Mr President, 100 days: that's all it has taken President von der Leyen to give in to the dinosaurs of industry and to the pressure of her own party. By butchering important corporate sustainability laws before they were even implemented. By advancing immigration policy that gives in to the far right and paves the way for detention centres in third countries. And by weakening essential rules for reducing CO2 emissions of cars. We are at risk of heading in the wrong direction. My suggestion for the next 100 days: stop giving into the panic. Come forward with a bold plan to reform our European Union. Empower innovators instead of dinosaurs. Attract the best talent from all around the world. Increase female participation. Get the maximum value for citizens from the EU budget. Pave the ground for a European army, now. And prepare the EU for ambitious enlargement. We want the United States of Europe. This is getting more urgent than ever before, day by day.

Madam President, I hear every day that the automotive industry is struggling to meet its targets, cannot afford to pay its fines, will have to lay off its workers. Yes, the sector faces struggles, but these are of its own doing. Some fail to recognise global headwinds and stick their heads in the sand instead of adapting. Here's a fact: the CO2 targets work. We parliamentarians love to gather here in this Chamber and talk about European competitiveness, but do we genuinely think that rolling back our targets, damaging investment certainty, rewarding laggards and penalising first movers will do anything for Europe's car industry other than leave it further behind China's? There's blood in the water and the sharks have smelt it. If you think the car industry has any intention to comply with the targets in 2027, you are sadly mistaken. Instead, the next goal will be to tear down the 2035 goal in total. Yes, the automotive plan contains some nice ideas. Give us a legislative proposal for the electrification of corporate fleets as soon as possible. But opening the targets is a huge mistake and the Commission needs to take it off the table.

Madam President, the Moldovan people decided to turn to the EU to amend their own constitution and to ask for our support on their way to EU accession. Now we have to deliver. And we do. With this EUR 1.9 billion Reform and Growth Facility for Moldova, we support Moldova's path to EU accession. We help to mitigate the challenges that arise from the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. We help to strengthen Moldova's administration, civil society and judicial system. And we help Moldova to gain independency in their energy supply. And on this, the Moldovan Government was quite clear: Moldova wants to build up renewables; Moldova wants to increase energy efficiency; Moldova wants to work on building renovation. In this way, we support the Moldovan Government and we are proud to help prepare Moldova to become a member of the European Union.

Thank you for your words. What you addressed in the end was very clearly the need to invest in infrastructure – how do you see the connection between investing in infrastructure and fighting desertification? How do you implement Green Deal measures, and how can we actually make sure that we really fight the root cause and not just increase the problems that we have already?

Mr President, the summer of 2024 is the hottest on record in the EU and globally. Thirteen Member States, meaning almost 50 % of the Member States of the EU, are affected by desertification and almost 25 % of the territory is sensitive to desertification. Still, while the EU promotes the leadership role globally, we are not prepared ourselves. The desertification COP16 failed to agree on a global drought framework, and the Commission promised to present a water resilience strategy already a year ago. I hope this will come very soon. And Commissioner Roswall, in your introduction, in your first sentence you said that we need to focus on helping farmers, and in the second sentence it was 'focus on economy'. I think what we really need in that water resilience strategy is water saving targets. We need to improve efficiency and reuse of water. We need to protect and restore our water supplies and the whole catchment area. And then at the same time, considering the wildfires and the flooding that we deal with here every single plenary session, we have to make sure that this water resilience strategy is accompanied and embedded into a real European climate adaptation law.

Madam President, every citizen has the right to clean drinking water. Unfortunately, one group of substances that you can be sure of making trouble in water is PFAS – the forever chemicals, as they are called – because they hardly decompose in nature. There are more than 10 000 of them, but only 24 of them are so far monitored under European law. One PFAS which is not even amongst those 24 has been found in high levels in drinking water in 11 countries – so far completely under the radar. Thanks to the European Parliament, beginning with January 2026 the total PFAS for drinking water has to be monitored. But knowing our water cycle from rain – over surface water, groundwater, towards drinking water – a similar group approach should already apply for surface water. Commissioner, do you agree with that? And when will the Commission finally propose the restriction of all PFAS?

Madam President, under the given circumstances, this compromise for the EU budget 2025 is a very good one. It includes very important top-ups for programmes for climate, biodiversity, humanitarian aid and healthcare, for example. But we also have to be aware that we should have done a lot more. We need an EU budget for the people, and the structure of the EU budget is completely outdated and urgently needs to be updated. We need a budget that is far more flexible. We need a budget that really follows our goals and values. Right now we are refusing to invest in fire alarms, but at the same time, we cannot afford to rebuild our house once it's burned down. We finally need mandatory targets, for example for climate mainstreaming and climate adaptation, to finally start building resilient communities. And we need to stop financing dictators. We really need a conditionality for a rule of law in the EU budget. With a flexible budget, we need to understand where our money is spent. So we need to follow the money. Let's reform the EU budget.

Madam President, first of all, my solidarity with the victims of the floodings in Valencia. We all have the responsibility to prevent those catastrophes and future victims. Commissioner, thank you for mentioning the numbers. The damages and economic losses by weather and climate related extreme events are rising rapidly. These are the undeniable facts. We have to decide: do we keep on delaying and rolling back climate legislation, just as the EPP is doing right now with the Deforestation Regulation? And do we literally cement the status quo and waste money without even providing a solution? Or do we finally commit to tackle the root cause and decide to build our resilience with a real climate adaptation strategy and with nature-based solutions? Let's give ourselves a decent chance at a better future and prioritise the latter. These investments will far outweigh the cost of continued inaction.

Mr President, we all agree: we want to strengthen Europe's rail sector. And yet, talking about this topic, we're standing at 9.30 in the evening on Wednesday in front of an almost empty hemicycle. We all agree: we want to have a fully interoperable European railway network. And still the Council will always water down any good demand coming from this Parliament. We all agree: we want to have an attractive train system. We want to have trains full of happy passengers. And yet, after years of trying, I am not even able to book a ticket across borders or across different operators. We finally need to have a multi-modal booking and ticketing system that operates according to the system: if it is one journey, it needs to be one ticket. We need to increase the funding for the Connecting Europe Facility to EUR 100 billion in the next Multiannual Financial Framework, we finally need to stop just talking the talk and we need to start walking the walk.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, Europe's car industry is trapped in a daydream, a daydream in which it can pursue business models of the past, while in reality, the rest of the world moves forward. Delaying the transition to electromobility is like hitting the snooze button on the morning alarm: you get a short-term reward but end up behind schedule. The tariffs agreed last week will temporarily reset that imbalance caused by Chinese Government subsidies, but they don't solve the problem. We need industry to see the green transition as a chance, not a threat, we need a clear vision for our automotive sector, we need a plan to ensure EU manufacturers become globally competitive, we need to increase the affordability of electric vehicles in the EU, and we need to drastically reduce emissions of the transport sector. Stop hitting the snooze button over and over again. Present us a forward-thinking industrial policy for local clean electric vehicles, and finally, wake up!