Debate contributions by Borys BUDKA

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, First of all, I would like to thank you for this substantive debate, which has shown that in the European Parliament, when it comes to security, solidarity, we are able to speak with one voice, we are able to adopt good solutions, we are able to work well with the European Commission and the Council. This is a very important piece of legislation from the point of view of citizens' security, which, as I said at the outset, has already proved its worth in the most difficult times. Therefore, I thank the European Commission for this prolongation of this act, but I also thank the countries involved in the work of the committees, who, with their proposals and amendments, have made it possible for us to work out solutions that will not only make European citizens feel safe in the most difficult times of the year for the gas season, winter and spring, but also that we will work together to ensure that, thanks to the simplification of this act, we will, thanks to a kind of deregulation, make gas prices in Europe lower. The European Union has used this time very well. Member states have strengthened their infrastructure, but they have also shown that they can bear the necessary costs when it comes to the security of their neighbours, the security of countries that may have had problems with gas at that time. I would therefore like once again to thank you for your efforts in the ITRE Committee and tomorrow I will ask for a mandate to be able to start trilogues as soon as possible and to complete what the Committee has started.

Mr President, thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen, I was appointed as the head of the ITRE committee for this important role, as the Commission proposed to extend the regulation, which guaranteed gas security and solidarity between all the countries of the European Union at the most difficult time for Europe. It is very important that Europe at a crucial moment managed to secure citizens in a situation where Russia used gas as an element of blackmail, as a tool to conduct its dirty, warlike policy. Today, Europe must face the challenges of the next winter at this difficult time. The regulation, which was successfully adopted, expires at the end of this year and the Commission has therefore proposed to extend it for another two years, while ensuring a revision of all rules covering the security of raw materials next year. The ITRE Committee has reached a very broad political agreement which, on the one hand, guarantees the security of citizens of the European Union when it comes to access to gas in key situations, while, on the other hand, we propose that you give us a negotiating mandate to be more flexible, less bureaucratic, but above all to have gas prices in Europe fall. During this time, the European Union countries have managed to strengthen infrastructure, build new ports that accept LNG gas, make us more united and more in solidarity than when we introduced these rules. In its political compromise, the ITRE Committee proposes more flexibility as regards the end date by which storages must be filled. Well, we propose that it should not be a specific date, but rather a timeframe, so that from a market point of view there is more flexibility, and thus it did not turn out that gas prices can be higher in summer than in winter on key trajectory dates. The second very important thing: ensure that the minimum level, from which there are no derogations anymore, is 75%. But watch out! We have set this target at 83%, of course with the possibility of negotiations in trilogues. As announced by the European Commission, Parliament will also significantly reduce bureaucratic burdens. Therefore, we limit the issue of reporting to key elements. We will want the trust between the Member States and the European Commission to be the basis for this reporting, of course taking into account the fact that the Commission needs to know at what level these gas storage facilities are. We also maintain tools for the Commission to enforce in case of non-compliance. And, of course, like the European Commission, we want the European Union to become completely independent of Russian gas.

Madam President, thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen, Commissioner, I'm sorry. On behalf of the ITRE Committee, I have the honour to put to you a question concerning the situation in the AI industry, namely the recent decision of the United States to impose export restrictions on advanced AI chips and the weight of AI models. This poses a serious challenge to the functioning of the European Union’s single market, its economic resilience and its technological sovereignty. Classifying the Member States of the European Union into different categories undermines the principles of the European Union's common commercial policy and threatens the European Union's common approach to the development of artificial intelligence and industrial capacity building. In this connection, I would like to ask the following questions: first, how do these measures affect the implementation of the Chips Act, in particular as regards the third pillar (monitoring and crisis response) and the AI factories initiative? What adjustment measures is the Commission considering? The second question is how does the Commission plan to mitigate the potentially negative effects on Member States with export limits and on overall technological development in Europe? Third, what concrete steps is the Commission taking to further accelerate the development of intra-EU production capacities for AI chips in order to reduce dependence on external suppliers and strengthen the economic resilience of the European Union? The competitiveness compass contains only limited references to semiconductors. Therefore, is the Commission considering updating the Chips Acts to further support and accelerate investments in the European semiconductor ecosystem? Finally, does the Commission plan to speed up the establishment of the recently announced Centre for Artificial Intelligence Improvement and Research? If so, how and when is it to be established?