Debate contributions by Angelika NIEBLER

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, Mr Minister, ladies and gentlemen! U.S. tariffs hit our companies to the mark. The United States is our most important trading partner, and many jobs here in the European Union depend on exports. If the US administration unilaterally imposes unwarranted tariffs and ultimately declares customs war on us, we must act decisively and, above all, together. I think that the Commission has reacted correctly – prudently: You did not immediately impose counter tariffs, you were always ready for dialogue, open to negotiations, negotiated hard. But the Commission has also prepared to impose countermeasures, to react immediately if tariffs are sharpened. I think it's important to find new strategic partners as well. I must also compliment the Commission on this. You are traveling all over the world: Mercosur agreements have been concluded, negotiations are underway with India, with ASEAN countries, with African countries. I welcome all these initiatives – this is exactly the right way to go – and I thank you and hope that you can continue in this way and successfully conclude further trade agreements.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Europe is an autocontinent. The European automotive and supply industry is one of our core industries in the economy. More than 13 million people work in the automotive industry, in my home country, in Germany, alone over 600,000. I want it to stay that way. I want these jobs to be preserved, and that is why I welcome the Commission's action plan. It is a right and important signal for our companies and our employees in this important industry. I think it is right that the car manufacturers should be given more time, the CO2–To reach limit values and thus to avoid the penalty payments here. The situation is very challenging economically. That is a correct suggestion. However, what I lack from the Commission in the Action Plan is a clear commitment that all alternative propulsion technologies will continue to be fully approved in the future. The end for the incinerator for the year 2035 must go away. I very much hope that we will get approval for this here in this Parliament as well.

Mr President! Mr Executive Vice-President! Ladies and Gentlemen! Dear colleagues! What kind of sham debate are we having here in this House? The left half of this House is trying to persuade the Conservatives to cooperate with the extreme right here. Talking about it. I can only say: There has never been cooperation, there is no cooperation, and there will be no cooperation with the extreme right. What we are not forbidding from the left side of the House is to formulate our positions, our beliefs here in this House. That is what you do, dear Greens, dear Leftists, dear Social Democrats. My colleague Daniel Caspary has shown who has already been supported here with whom. When I look at the final decisions: I have just discussed with my colleague Monika Hohlmeier about the Budget guidelines. Who voted with whom? All of them, the Left, the Social Democrats and the Greens, voted with the AfD, with the ESN. I could give other examples. Look at your own voting behavior before pointing the raised index finger at other people here. I can only say: Those who ignore the problems and hardships of the people in our country and do not take them seriously, promote the election of the far-right and far-left. And if you look at what the traffic light government has done in the last three years: We have over 50,000 corporate insolvencies, half of them in the last year alone. We have rising unemployment, 400,000 more than at the beginning of the traffic light government. And we have 100 billion euros of capital going out. These are problems that we have to solve and address, not sham debates that we have in the European Parliament.

Madam President, Commissioner! Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! Making Europe more attractive again as a business location, strengthening industry and companies, creating freedom and, above all, attracting investment to Europe - this is what the next few years will be all about. In my view, the Commission's work programme sounds very promising. Everything is focused on competitiveness. The U-turn is coming, and Commissioner, you say yes: not business as usual. I can only support that. The reduction of bureaucracy should now be tackled in a very concrete way. It is to be invested in infrastructures, in new future technologies, and also the energy costs are to go down. That all sounds good. I think that courageous proposals must be made now. I think it's important that we finally get serious about cutting red tape. Away with all the paperwork that only burdens companies, away with rules that nobody needs, that have no added value at all! Just have the courage to abolish rules - I think that's good. I have read with pleasure that there is no proposal on AI liability rules now. I don't think we need that. I also think that everything that has gone on in terms of sustainability reporting is totally out of control. Here we must counteract; I look forward to the proposals. We must invest in our future, ladies and gentlemen, that is to say, we must also build data centres; America is fooling us. The proposal to promote artificial intelligence, to build gigafactories so that our European programmers can also train their models here. I think it's a good idea, I think it's the right way to go. Invest where necessary, including in European Sky Shield. I think that's what matters now: show that Europe is strong, able to act and can focus on the essentials.

Madam President, Madam President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen! We need an effective Commission. The challenges we face here in Europe are enormous and have already been addressed many times: For over 1,000 days of war in Ukraine, the Trump administration will take office on January 20, many regions are shutting themselves off, raising tariffs, our economy is badly off, companies are cutting thousands of jobs across Europe. That is why I can only ask all my fellow Members once again to support the Commission today, to confirm the Commission today and thus to make a clear commitment to a strong common Europe. Dear colleagues, dear colleagues! As a follow-up to the Commission's confirmation today, we can take a critical look at every single Commissioner, if I may say so. It is not yet over with the confirmation, but today I ask you to really go into yourself again, all those who still have doubts, with regard to what lies ahead in the world and how we are perceived in the world. Today, with your vote, please give the Commission the confirmation we need. After that, we will continue to do our job, critically question, admonish. If the political priorities we want in the new Commission do not come, then we will certainly do our job. But today a signal of unity and strong support for a strong Commission and a strong Europe must come from this Parliament, and that is what I ask all my fellow Members to do.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! If the bureaucracy prevails, progress falls by the wayside. This statement by Franz Josef Strauss has not lost its relevance – on the contrary. Our companies are innovative, capable of making progress if we let them; But that's just what's missing. Our companies are drowning in bureaucratic requirements, reporting obligations, documentation obligations, taxonomy, sustainability reporting, supply chain law, ecodesign regulation, deforestation regulation, circular economy rules, rules on packaging, to name but a few. Then there are the so-called implementing provisions in the delegated acts, further detailed specifications, hundreds of pages of specifications that our companies have to implement. This is a regulatory overkill. I think we need to radically change direction. We need a turnaround, we need to put our entire set of rules to the test. And, ladies and gentlemen, we must also have the courage to simply abolish unnecessary regulations.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen! There is no longer any doubt that the Medical Devices Regulation was well-intentioned but badly done. It has to be changed and it has to happen very, very quickly. We've lost a lot, a lot of valuable time. We here in the European Parliament have been beating for almost three years – almost three years! – Alarm. The first changes to the Medical Devices Regulation were good. But they are not enough. The situation, as many colleagues have mentioned, is still dramatic. The European medical device manufacturers leave our European Union, the applications are now made to the FDA in the USA and no longer to us in Europe. This is actually a big scandal. I also say that when you go to hospitals, when you listen to the medical profession, when you ask the certified bodies, they all say: It doesn't go on like this. I really ask the new Commission to present a proposal immediately, not to evaluate it first. We've lost three years now. We need an accelerated approval process for innovative medical devices. The recertification of low-risk products for every five years must be abolished. We also need to abolish the certification of niche products.

Mr President, Mr Vice-President of the European Commission, ladies and gentlemen! More than 13 million people work in the automotive industry. In Germany, in my home country, there are over 780,000. Europe is an autocontinent. The European automotive and supplier industry is one of the core industries of our economy. I want it to stay that way. I want jobs in the automotive and supplier industries to be maintained in Europe. I also want the industry to focus on climate neutrality, which means that the transformation will come. Global competition has intensified dramatically, it is also played with unfair methods. Therefore, the question must be: What benefits our companies, what benefits our companies and thus secures the jobs here on site, and what harms? That must be our benchmark. Penalties, ladies and gentlemen, are of no use. After all, the automotive industry – at least in my home region – has been on its way to becoming sustainable for a long time. We need to review the regulation on CO2‐Prefer emission limit values to 2025. We need to check the fleet limits. We need a Lifecycle‐Analysis and we need technology neutrality. We have to correct the end for the combustion engine and also promote alternative fuels, because this is the only way to get a better CO for the existing fleet – that is more than 40 million cars driving on the road for me in Germany –2Footprint. We need fair competition globally. I think it is true that the Commission initiated the threat of countervailing duties. I very much hope that through negotiations we will be able to refrain from punitive tariffs or countervailing tariffs due to the pressure that has been built up. That must be the last resort.