Speeches

Madam President, dear colleagues, in accordance with Rule 59(4)(4), I ask you as the rapporteur responsible to refer back the dossier to the TRAN Committee for the institutional negotiations.

Mr President! I think it has become clear once again that it is important to support this dossier, also because, on the one hand, we need the infrastructure to solve this so-called chicken-egg problem. I believe that we have achieved this in electromobility. This can also be seen in the ramp-up of the various technologies and in the sales figures of the vehicles. But we must do the same with hydrogen technology. Here, too, we are now at a point where, on the one hand, the industry is reluctant to react because it wants to invest, but does not yet see the infrastructure, and the infrastructure managers are not taking action for the same reasons. I believe that with this ambitious approach, that we are moving the goals of hydrogen technology forward for three years compared to the Commission's proposal and also reducing the gaps between the various infrastructures, we are giving a great incentive to go into the next few years with the establishment of a redundant system. Why do I think we need both systems – both electrification and infrastructure development? First, because it has been called: We do not have the grid available everywhere, which can easily electrify everything. Where we can ultimately balance the grid, I believe that good hydrogen use is needed. Taken together, this would indeed be the mix that will help us in the European Union in the future to decarbonise our mobility, our mobility sector. That we need enough electrification and energy is completely undisputed. That's why we won't be able to do it alone. We will also have to make imports from other regions of the world. But with REPowerEU, which I think we will be able to do well, we need to follow this up again. Support my amendments.

Mr President, dear colleagues, I think we have committed ourselves to the Paris Agreement targets, and with the Fit for 55 package, we, as the European Union, have put this legislation on the table. Within this legislation – I think it goes without saying – we have to decarbonise, in particular, the transport sector, and we see that individual transport as well as heavy—goods transport are still emitting very high emissions. Alternative and sustainable fuels are key to decarbonising and, in order to do so, we definitely need to overcome the bottleneck which is and which was for a long time the infrastructure. Therefore, dear colleagues, we have to fast roll out the infrastructure for alternative fuels. Just let me go one step back in near history: in 2013, the European Commission already came up with legislation called AFID, the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive, at that time, and this previous legislation was totally destroyed – I have to say that in these words – by the Member States, by the Council. If they had not completely undermined the legislation at that time, we would have had 677 000 charging stations across the European Union by the end of 2020. And even now, October 2022, we have, I would say, only 377 000 charging stations. Therefore, it was high time that the European Commission submitted the AFIR Regulation within the Fit for 55 package. Two weeks ago, here, exactly at that place, we voted in the Transport Committee overwhelmingly with a majority for this report – 36 yes to no, and I clearly say charging must be as simple as filling up petrol if we want to make a success story out of it. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to thank all my shadow colleagues from all the other groups. I guess we have now achieved strong and progressive elements. We have achieved charging stations every 60 kilometres, which will be obligatory until the end of 2025. We have also put in higher power output for light—duty vehicles, for heavy—duty vehicles and, in particular, for hydrogen infrastructure. We have also put more ambition into the hydrogen targets: refuelling hydrogen stations every 100 kilometre until the end of 2027. We have also put into this legal regulation obligatory card payments on charging stations. We have included the electrification of and hydrogen for rail modes. On—shore power supply for ships until the end of 2030 and shoreside electricity for aircrafts until the end of 2025. We have also incorporated exemptions for outer regions and included data provisions which make user information easier. I proposed a European access point, which will also be established within this regulation. Now, hopefully, we will get the support from Members of Parliament on Wednesday at noon. But still one remaining issue is open and for this, I want to ask for your support, dear colleagues, and it is the sanction mechanism. I just want to tell you frankly that this sanction mechanism has nothing to do with ideology. It’s just a tool to push the Member States towards the implementation of this regulation. Article 19(a) just says that the Member States need to implement a penalty mechanism for those charge point operators who don’t comply with the legislation. Full stop. We also included a recital stating that the European Commission will be demanded to fine Member States EUR 1 000 per non—installed charging station. Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, we have worked now, I would say, for a year and a half, extremely, extremely on this dossier, with all my colleagues on the different reports and the different committees. We had more than 1 000 amendments. We clustered all these amendments into different topics. We have put them all together. We made out of this more than 1 000 amendments, 18 compromise amendments, and we brought 17 of them through, two weeks ago within the Transport Committee. Now it’s up to us to take the next step. The next step is to vote for it in this House, and then we have to go to the trilogues, where we already have fixed two dates for trilogues with the Czech Presidency. I think we did our utmost as European Parliamentarians. Now it’s up to you to vote and to follow my and our line. I’m really optimistic that this will be the starting point of a new European era where we can install infrastructure for alternative fuels, alternative technology. Once again, no Green Deal without new technologies.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Aviation is an important sector, an important industry, that's right. It accounts for 2.1% of global CO2 emissions, and in Europe it is even higher, in the EU we have 3.8%. And this is also important because this sector is one of the most difficult to decarbonise. First of all, we do not have the possibility to electrify here – today, perhaps not yet tomorrow. We must also take the path of alternatives. That is why openness to technology is so important, and that is why it is also important that we support research and development in this area. If we hear that Airbus will be able to launch a hydrogen aircraft in 2035 at the earliest, that's nice, but we need to find a solution in the medium term. That is why this regulation is right and important. Nevertheless, it has been said – and that is what I want to say – that we must make sure that what is poured into the tank is not missing elsewhere. And this ‘Book and Claim“In my opinion, the system is not a bad idea. But in this form, it is ultimately not protected from abuse, and that is why we also need a better alternative to it.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, This terrible war has been going on for 69 days, and all modes of transport have been compromised, five different packages of sanctions have already been launched. The suffering people in Ukraine deserve our full solidarity and our support. One of the priority actions is likely to be the strengthening of the rail mode in order to be able to continue to help the people of Ukraine quickly and, above all, better. This requires broad support, in particular of a financial nature. All the destruction will have to be rebuilt and repaired after the war. And if we want to build Ukraine together, it will become a flagship country in the area of the Green Deal. This requires a clear plan. Mr Cuffe referred to a Marshall Plan. We should follow the proposals of Frans Timmermans as Commissioner responsible for the Green Deal. And we can also call this plan the Timmermans Plan.

Madam President, I have the honour to present the position of our shadow rapporteur, Mr Andris Ameriks. This dossier is of importance to complete our comprehensive mobility package. After years of work on this file, interinstitutional negotiations have made great progress, and we have a good text on the table. This directive will help the hauliers to operate better, and to be able to manage in an effective and efficient way instabilities caused by technical and seasonal reasons. Rules on the use of hired vehicles should be based on common, clear and fair rules. At the same time, the rules should not limit the free movement of services within the European Union, while taking into account the fiscal differences between Member States. Therefore, I support this proposal and its adoption in order to improve our transport industry, making it more arranged, fairer and favourable to all stakeholders.

Madam President, I cannot stress enough how important this report is for achieving our climate goals. Just a few weeks ago, we might have only talked about the environmental, environmental and social benefits of the Battery Regulation, which will put Europe on the path to a sustainable and zero-emission future. But with the war in Ukraine, nothing is the same as it was before. This report, ladies and gentlemen, is now also about strategically securing raw materials for a fast-growing battery industry and accelerating our clean energy transition. It has been raised that recycling valuable and environmentally critical materials from batteries will be a key to a sustainable and competitive battery industry that should be at the forefront of the world. The introduction of minimum targets for recycling efficiency and collection of waste batteries will contribute decisively to this objective. From a transport perspective, I would particularly like to highlight the extension to light means of transport and the deletion of the 2 kilowatt threshold. We are thus making the legislation future-proof by including the e-bikes and the so-called e-scooters in the regulation. There are around 1000 small and medium-sized enterprises in this sector across Europe, with more than 155 000 directly or indirectly employed professionals. The bicycle industry alone generates sales of more than 18 billion euros. That is, with the Battery Regulation, we will ensure that the markets for electric vehicles and e-bikes continue to flourish with all the environmental and health benefits of these vehicles and that these vehicles are brought to the European market.

Madam President, Excellency, ladies and gentlemen! Madam President of the Commission, I think it was right that you focused today on energy policy. I would like to use my limited time to point out another important topic, namely the importance of digitalisation. A secure and sustainable digital infrastructure is the foundation for our economy. However, it is also clear that the EU will be in a global competition for digital dominance in the future. When we talk about the digital transformation in small and medium-sized enterprises, there is no doubt that we also need to talk about how the big tech companies behave in the global market and also take advantage of their dominant position. This becomes clear to all of us every day, whether on social networks or when shopping online. Digitalisation must not be at the expense of workers, nor must it lead to a permanent disadvantage for small and medium-sized enterprises. In order to be able to use and achieve the objectives of the Fit for 55 package, we need to rely on new technologies. Freely according to the principle ‘No Green Deal without new technologies“I think this is a great opportunity in the end. Whether it's automated driving or Geofencing – we need to make full use of all opportunities, especially in the area of mobility, where we are the world's biggest driver of emissions, in order to find our way here. In this sense, we, together as the European Commission and the European Parliament, must maintain the pressure on the Member States to come to a solution.