Government of Luxembourg

Policy topics Government of Luxembourg is active on

What Government of Luxembourg has said (80)

• 2026-07-13 “24:34 - 15:25:51): Thank you, Martin, for having put this important, item to the agenda. Agriculture should continue to be promoted as an attractive profession that's accessible to all, including women. Having come from a farm myself, I can tell you that things have certainly developed in the last few years. Now our sisters can, take up farms. And yet, it wasn't really seen as a real opportunity, and things have changed happily since then. But the legal framework on inheritance, on transfer, on setting up farming does not help women. The main issue today is still in recognition, visibility, and support for women in agriculture. We need to stress the decisive contribution of women to development and sustainability of family farmers. Greater visibility of their responsibility could strengthen the attractiveness of the sector and encourage more women to get involved in agriculture.”
  Gender roles, equality and inclusion
• 2026-07-13 “25:53 - 15:26:19): The family work balance is key, and I think really essential, in fact, including maternal leave, sickness leave, qualified replacements on farms. These are all essential issues here. Luxembourg has made progress on this and has a social protection framework now in place. Thank you very much.”
  Support for families
• 2026-07-13 “27:16 - 11:30:41): Thank you very much, Martin, and all the best for your presidency. Thank you also for your ambitious program. Dear Christophe, I congratulate you for publishing the EU livestock strategy and protein plan. The livestock sector must be highlighted and must allow us to take on crisis with the aim of ensuring food security and strategic autonomy in the EU. To this end, it must be resilient, sustainable, and competitive. But it's difficult to keep up the livestock strategy with reducing current reduce reduction of ammonia and methane goals, which decrease our livestock numbers. In life in Luxembourg, we have a very small number of livestock per hectare and aren't self self sufficient in beef production. So we need to think further about this. Maximum valuing is vital, particularly for countries where agricultural is essential. And we need for grasslands. We need to make sure that we can sustain these areas. Livestock allows many different regions to be upheld, and this is vital in the protein plan. The EU is 1 of the most sustainable animal protein producers in the world. Promoting European excellence must be strengthened for the dairy sector and high quality livestock. Circularity in agriculture must be ensured, particularly by, reviewing the renew act and reassessing the protein regulations for use of organic fertilizers. To increase the sector's resilience, we also need to review categorization of, animal diseases and preventive vaccination to avoid loss of genetics and to strengthen our livestock. We share the fact that lack of trans processing is a major handicap for production. We don't necessarily see the solution in sectoral interventions for producers. There's a risk of an excessive administrative burden for such a small sector. When it comes to trade regulations and origin labeling, we are reserved on this. Although, in theory, it is interesting. The practical implementation of this seems to be somewhat limited and extending this to processed products could be too complex and involve too great, administrative burden. We also need to look at protection of protein crops and to make sure that we don't undermine production such as nature restoration requirements on animal welfare, come from citizen requirements and should be applied also to imports. Thank you.”
  Animal diseases prevention and management in the EU
• 2026-07-10 “27:46 - 11:30:31): Let me start by thanking the Cyprus presidency and also Marcus for their dedication to bring this fight forward and the progress already achieved. And to extend my best wishes to you, Simon, and your team for a successful presidency. On the 1st question, you have Luxembourg's commitment to instruct its experts to work constructively towards a solid and also balanced council mandate in October, taking into account the interests of all member states. Turning to the 2nd question. Yes. The note rightly identifies the substantial topics that remain to be addressed. But as the details matter, let me focus on a few elements. As regards market infrastructures, I welcome the recognition that this crisis management issue remains currently unresolved. This needs to be tackled before next steps may be envisaged. In the asset management sector, supervisory convergence is about coordinating our actions in identifying and removing intra-EU barriers. It is not about adding new supervisory layers. On the depository passport and delegation, we cannot weaken the investor protection and must preserve a framework that has stood the test of time. On ESMA governance, I remain open to a model bringing together national authorities and independent members with the board of supervisors as the ultimate decision maker. The SSLM model has proven its value and may serve as a meaningful source of inspiration. On the scope of ESMA's direct supervision, Luxembourg's position is well known. A supervisory framework designed according to an entity's cross-border activities goes against the basic principle of the single market and cannot justify centralization. This holds true for CASPs operating across several member states. Hybrid CASPs should also remain under national supervision to avoid multiple layers of supervision. The steering note rightly identifies cost control and also a strong accountability framework as key topics. We need reassurance on how ESMA realizes efficiency gains in its daily tasks. And competitiveness being our shared priority, it needs also to be reflected in ESMA's mandate. Thank you.”
  Financial regulation
• 2026-06-29 “Ladies and gentlemen. Ministers, the fight against poverty is a credibility test for social Europe. Our citizens are not going to wait for intentions. They want concrete results. Luxembourg fully supports the new European strategy. And I congratulate you on the alignment of the national. Of this strategy and our national combat strategy in Luxembourg, which has recently been adopted. Our approach is unambiguous poverty cannot be treated by means of isolated measures. Instead, coordinated measures must be applied throughout the life cycle. This means that all public policies for housing, employment and health, as well as education must be integrated. We must act from childhood onwards because poverty is a generational problem and to fight this we. This is our responsibility. We have a reception at centre and also a support that is appropriate for families. It is also necessary to fight poverty, to enable access to decent living conditions and so on. However, let me be clear here a right that is not used is actually a failure, and the non recourse to these rights weakens our citizens. That is why we must fight against this. And it is one of our main pillars of our national strategy. So we will fight the increase in life costs to provide benefits to the most vulnerable, while also increasing the state's contributions to this aid. This way, the targeted population will find it easier to access these benefits. We also have a simplification system for the administrative procedures and to give easier access to information to the citizens. We now have a one stop shop for these matters. The aim is easy to guide and to help citizens access the available benefits. Europe will be judged on its ability to protect the most vulnerable. We have the tools. We have the strategy. Now we must move forward and put all this into practice by means of the deployment of concrete measures, and Luxembourg will follow suit and take its responsibilities. Thank you.”
  Child poverty policy
• 2026-06-29 “Thank you, Chair and commissioners friends, as you know, the single market and the rules pertaining to it are very important for our country because in Luxembourg we see the European dimension of this. Looking at the number of challenges that we face and the changes in the world of labour, the cross border exchanges happened at various levels and therefore systems have to keep pace. Luxembourg is very attached to this, but we would say that it is important that a review of 883 has not yet been formally adopted, but perhaps this is a praiseworthy approach for this, and this is something which has already been brought up by Luxembourg and other member states in the past. But it's also important to understand that we haven't finished work on this yet, and we now have to put the finishing touches to critical points so that we can coordinate properly between member states, and so that we can take measures which are going to allow us to bring this forward. There are certain constraints. Constraints on unemployment and for people who draw unemployment benefits. And this is something that we would criticize. This new legislation means we're going to have to change our systems, but we do not have the wherewithal to make sure that there is proper monitoring of this beyond our borders. And that is why, with five other member states, we have proposed that we would cover this point, and we are happy that the Commission and the presidency has undertaken to look at this, and the initial proposal is still topical, and therefore, we would say that exchange of data should be systematic and compulsory between member states when there is cross-border traffic. We have believe in this way that what we can do at the moment is quite limited, particularly with this change of paradigm for unemployment. We would ask, therefore, that we have mass data exchange and this be compulsory, and this would continue and be standardised between member states. Thank you chair.”
  EU regulation of cross-border and posted workers
• 2026-06-29 “Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues. Accessibility to a housing is something that takes a two prong approach. You have to increase what's available and you have to give access to households. In Luxembourg we're doing this by making affordable housing A part of new projects, 30% in new plans. And this is part of our sectoral building program. And this comes for residential housing and is where there is the highest pressure. The Lodgment system takes account of land planning and making sure that there is affordable housing. And we do this by making sure that it's affordable over time. And more than 5300 homes and this is been about €1.3 billion, has been invested. The National Office for Affordable Housing has means that there is a quicker allocation of such funding. And also we have tried to simplify things and that is underway at the moment particularly, we have tried to make planning permission easier and we have done this by silence, meaning consent. The state has a role to play as a catalyst here, particularly at a time when the private sector is slowing up and acquisition of land is important so that we can establish projects and so that we can make sure there is affordable housing. And also building aids for young people and students is in place. There is a target project such as youth dwellings, and in 2025, we were able to develop new areas which had affordable housing, making sure that there was a good social mix and a good generational mix. Looking at rents, it is important here that we make sure that it is affordable over the long term and that we have the necessary investment. There is also complementary packages in view. We're looking at how we can prepare the ground so that we can further bring in investment. Thank you chair.”
  EU policy on urban development
• 2026-06-26 “36:15 - 10:37:01): Can I thank the presidency? Luxembourg is in favor of the goal of simplifying and speeding up permitting for renewable energy projects. Many measures have already been adopted in Luxembourg or are being adopted in order to achieve this goal. At the European level, it's important that the multiplication of various different different legal frameworks for renewables, grid prop projects, charging points, and storage don't lead to legal insecurity, which would risk slowing projects down rather than speeding them up. Against this backdrop, we welcome the proposal from the presidency, which gives member states the ability to rationalize permitting in areas which are largely of national competence. Luxembourg supports the general approach. Thank you.”
  EU policy on permitting for renewable energy projects
• 2026-06-26 “04:27 - 12:04:55): you to the presidency. Luxembourg supports those supporting the pragmatic approach adopted by the Commission for the Implementation of the Methane Regulation. We think that the existing framework provides the necessary framework to member states while providing legal certainty and predictability to actors. These are essential conditions for a successful implementation. Thank you. Thank you all. Before we conclude, let me give the floor to commission.”
  Natural gas
• 2026-06-26 “37:37 - 11:39:14): you to the presidency. On planning cross border infrastructure, we support the central scenario at European level, which has been drawn up by the commission. We recognize the need to take into account nationals and regional specificities, and we welcome, therefore, the presidency's efforts to ensure close coordination with national stakeholders and consistency in line with national plans on energy and climate. When it comes to security and resilience of energy infrastructure, we recognize the fact that there are serious physical and cybersecurity threats, and we want to express our solidarity with those member states which had been most directly exposed to those threats. The text presented to us basically ensure that we can focus on quick development of new cross border energy infrastructure whilst also focusing on the priorities I've mentioned. So Luxembourg, therefore, supports the general approach and would call for a quick conclusion to the negotiations with the parliament given the strategic importance of this regulation for security of supply, competitiveness, and the decarbonization of our economy. Now in the next few months, there's something additional we'll need to guarantee the effective implementation of this regulation, namely funding. We're seeing a weakening of provisions on using congestion income funds. Therefore, it's imperative that we have sufficient funding for the Connecting Europe facility within the framework of the budgetary negotiations which are underway. Thank you. Thank you. And finally, Ireland.”
  EU energy infrastructure integration
• 2026-06-25 “Thank you. Chair Maria. Colleagues, a year after the adoption of the European Water Resilience Strategy, a real progress has been made, notably in terms of awareness raising and mobilising stakeholders. I think if you look at the implementation of the strategy, that's really created an impetus at national level. We're finalizing our national water resilience strategy, working closely with all stakeholders. Now, efficiently using water and water efficiency are key and concrete instruments are already there. We have financial support mechanisms to improve the efficiency with which companies use water. At the same time, we are continuing our discussions to look at spreading good practices to other sectors. Now households have a big impact on water consumption, so we need to raise awareness more. And we also need to think about incentive based instruments such as tariffs linked to the amount of of water consumed and also defining clear, measurable objectives. Digitalization offers significant potential, which will enable us to move towards better decisions based on data. Now, there are initiatives underway in Luxembourg to improve interoperability and data sharing, notably through the once only principle. And we're also working on improving the assessments of the availability of water. And we're supporting the progressive deployment of smart meters at a European level. It's key that we have common standards, interoperability frameworks, and clear technical guidelines to speed up the deployment of solutions such as smart meters, remote sensing or digital twins. Lastly, I'm funding. It's imperative that we mobilize more private capital. Blended funding and open applications can. So green applications can play a key role. We need projects which are investment ready. The experience we've gained, notably through the support of the E B in rewilding projects, has shown the added value of innovative initiatives in that context. The EU has a key role to play in supporting member states through technical assistance, risk sharing instruments and a stable legislative framework with clear objectives. Thank you.”
  EU policy on water management
• 2026-06-25 “Thank you very much, chair. Well, the transition to the circular economy needs more impotence, especially because of the environmental issues, but also to, um, bring our markets towards, uh, quality and resilience. And that's why we support the joint Benelux. Non-paper. Thank you very much.”
  Circular economy
• 2026-06-25 “Thank you Maria, and thank you for putting this essential item on the agenda. However, we regret the fact that we're not going to have a revision of the reach regulation within the framework of the current mandate, despite commitments made in the 2025 work Programme and the Action Plan for the European chemical industry. This revision is a key lever if we want to modernize our policy for chemical products and make it more ambitious. Now, if there are no legislative proposals, Comitology is a possible way forward in pragmatic terms, but it couldn't replace an overarching revision. I'd like to thank France for its initiative. The non-paper on reach. I fully support the points made there. It will be useful on the basis of the work done by the Echa forum to identify priority actions which we could take. We need to ensure a high level of human protection and environmental protection, whilst at the same time ensuring that there is a stable, predictable, pro-innovation framework for businesses. There are a number of challenges we have to tackle in order to deal with issues of non-compliance. We need reinforced information sharing between authorities. We need to strengthen cooperation between authorities and the customs authorities, and we need to facilitate access to data on imported substances and articles. When it comes to registrations, it's essential that we update the requirements to take into account scientific progress and new classes of dangers introduced through the CLP regulation, and we also need to continue our work in digitalisation, digitalizing and harmonizing the safety data sheet, simplify some procedures and improve interoperability of European systems in order to ensure data quality. When it comes to authorisations, tools such as the candidates list must be used more and better to guide choices. Authorisation or restriction is crucial that we bolster incentives for replacements and substitutions, but we need to make sure that we apply the safe and sustainable by design approach. To conclude, even if there's no overarching legislative revision, we do have a real lever which we can draw upon to move forward and to ensure that reach remains a pillar which provides protection and ensures competitiveness. Thank you.”
  Chemicals regulation
• 2026-06-25 “Thank you. Maria. Colleagues, I'd like to thank Spain for this item. And we support a strong, visible life program. We're facing a three fold crisis biodiversity, climate pollution. We need therefore instruments to transform ambition into results. And for more than 30 years now, life has proved that it can do that. It's had a real impact on the ground. Now, in Luxembourg, we don't have that many life projects, but they've never theless been exemplary. We've seen a knowledge transfer, we've seen quality projects, and we've seen implementation of European projects. So for Luxembourg, highlighting and exchanging good practices are key. That's key added value. We welcome the assets which the programme has. There are clear criteria is effective and there's a real label of excellence. There's a risk of all this being watered down if you put it into a broader instrument in the context of the future MFF. Simplifying shouldn't mean weakening. We need a dedicated budget line. That's key. If we want to preserve the ambition and impact of European environmental action. Thank you.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU
• 2026-06-25 “President, thank you for giving me the floor. Dear Maria. And can I wish a happy National Day to Slovenia? We thank the Commission for the proposals on car labelling clear information for consumers is essential to the good functioning of the internal market. Colleagues, I just wish to reiterate a very key point as far as Luxembourg is concerned. Transition towards zero emissions mobility structure should be our guiding line in this legislative package. It has to be fully aligned with our shared goal of a 90% reduction in emissions by 2040 and climate neutrality by 2050. Since our discussions in March, my analysis hasn't changed, but rather consolidated the geopolitical context, the energy markets, the evolution of sales all confirm the need to stick to an electrification trajectory that is ambitious, clear and predictable, guaranteeing legal certainty and attractiveness for investments. Luxembourg, with a number of other member states, has co-signed a non-paper, which underscores a number of essential principles such as environmental integrity, rigorous data and the responsible use of our limited resources. Allow me to underscore a couple of key aspects. The sector's emissions trajectory must remain consistent with our climate objectives. Any reduction in objective ambition has to be offset.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• 2026-06-25 “Data has to be reliable, accessible and transparent. The updating of the utility factor in November is essential to this. Maintaining inexact data around rechargeable hybrids would be unacceptable. The definition of a zero emissions vehicle should remain unchanged. Zero CO2 emissions from exhaust. The question of climate neutrality has to be maintained and preserved. Renewable fuels. Cannot be made equivalent to carbon zero fuels. Carbon credits should be maintained for sectors which are difficult to decarbonize decarbonize such as aviation, defense and shipping, in light of the limited nature of our resources. Furthermore. Other criteria are creeping into the discussions, such as Made in Europe, made in the EU, and the question of super credits for small, affordable electric vehicles. Luxembourg remains very critical, however, on proposals aiming to reduce or to introduce flexibility additional flexibility which would undermine our ambitions. This regulation, in summary, must remain ambitious in climate aspects, provide clarity to investors and remain focused on electrification as the key solution. Luxembourg looks forward to continue contributing constructively and working towards a balanced compromise under the Irish presidency, without undermining our trajectory towards zero emissions. I thank you.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• 2026-06-25 “Thank you very much, Maria. Colleagues for Luxembourg, it's very important to underscore the urgency of the triple crisis that we're facing. We need to act in the area of preservation and highlighting natural capital. This is the absolute necessary condition for our common prosperity globally. Cop 17 in Yerevan is an excellent opportunity to reaffirm our determination to implement the Kunming Montreal framework, while highlighting the initiatives that can be transformative by the eco services should go above and beyond the economic issues, but we should look at the intrinsic values, which are really, um, incommensurate. The evaluation, the methodology of the IPS on biodiversity is a key tool for strengthening this awareness raising. Raising its clear economic activity contributes to the degradation of nature, with financial flows to the tune of $7.3 trillion a year that are working towards this destruction. So the response can only be structural. The European Roadmap on Nature credits can contribute to to setting the path for this and setting safeguards. Nature critics should not work against the general interest of our citizens. And so for a reason. For that reason, we need to make sure that there's a transparency, accountability. All of this should be heightened So that we make sure that we don't have compensation without transformation.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU
• 2026-06-25 “In the area of bioeconomy. Bioeconomy is an opportunity to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels while strengthening our autonomy, resilience and competitiveness under the condition that we respect ecological limits and we make sure that we do not engage in unsustainable practices. So these things need to be things that don't substitute what we have. They should be a complement to what we have. We need to remain vigilant with regard to, for example, the stress test of the Nature directive that play a key role in protecting nature. We're drawing up a national plan for biodiversity with the technical support of the Commission. This exercise will allow us to pinpoint the most effective levers for financing to finance nature and resilience. Doing away with harmful subsidies is a key part of this approach. In order to have a true transition, we need to make sure that European policies are consistent and we should align sectoral policies with our biodiversity aims and not the other way around. Sometimes nature protection and economic development have an artificial link. Thank you.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU
• 2026-06-25 “Thank you very much. Maria Luxembourg shares the concerns raised by Germany, France and the Netherlands. And we support the request to put forth in the joint document calling for a coordinated action looking at the harmful environmental and economic effects of fast fashion. We are very much in line with what we have in the Waste Directive and the eco design for sustainable products, including maybe having a special provision for ultra fast fashion. We need to have continued action here in. More specifically, there's a need to guarantee a transition towards a circular economy that is economically viable for companies, but also respects the standards of quality for European companies and working with competent authorities, and allowing for the right type of consumption, and to have sustainable practices such as repair, reuse and the reduced reduction of waste. Thank you.”
  Sustainable fashion
• 2026-06-22 “Fc Maria thank you Maria. Congratulations to you and your team for having found the correct balance concerning the plant reproductive materials. This regulation modernizes approximately ten regulations that are very important for this sector concerning the transport regulation and file. The proper balance between animal welfare and sector practices have to be found. Air transport is also a very sensitive subject for Luxembourg and we shall be following it closely. Thank you.”
  Agriculture (green)
• 2026-06-22 “Thank you. And thank you, David, for having a place this item on the agenda. Indeed, it is essential that a monitoring BSc as a set up by the Member States take into account the evolution of epidemiological circumstances. Our resources are limited and we need to use them for the crises that we face. The regulation 999 of 2001. Has to be respected. That seems obvious. Thank you.”
  EU competences on health (internal-competence axis, sharpened)
• 2026-06-16 “And then last but not least for the negative points, because I really want to say thank you for all the work you do, but just to tell you, it's not done and it will be a long way till it's finished. I just want to say that in these three regulations that is foreseen, I just want to warn all of us that for the moment, it will be very difficult to give green light for one of the topics, which will be the recommendations of the semester. If the semester European. I see the regulations I got the last 13 years. It's about pensions. It's about labor work. It's about physicality. It's about all these topics. If now, at the end of the day, European money will be dependent on if implementing recommendations, the semester recommendations, I just can tell you that you will make the best campaign for populists. The populists will have it on the plate served by us that labor, work, pensions, your pensions. It's not decided in your capital, it's decided in Brussels. So be aware about sanctioning countries with some recommendations that you give. Recommendations should not be obligations. But at the end of the day, if we accept this, it will be semestral obligations where we just. And I hope that we won't. We are all happy that Hungary has a change of government, but I can't believe that in. In five years, if we decide things like that, that Brussels will decide things which are typical national topics that will have a lot of little Auburn sitting around the table. Um, I for for the technical reasons, I will stick to the points that my embassy prepared, um, and continue in French. So I'm sure not to say wrong things important.”
  European Semester (social dimension)
• 2026-06-16 “Thank you very much, Madam President. And a big thank you to to the whole Cyprus Presidency team for the excellent work that has been done. This has enabled us to make the progress we're discussing today. Luxembourg can join the consensus on the European Competitiveness Fund. All the more so since you have kept the key. From our point of view of excellence. We can also support the partial General Agreement on the Global Europe Fund, even if the relatively weak language on the EIB is not really to our liking. However, Madam President, as the Vice Prime Minister said this morning during the negotiations on the Lego blocks, Luxembourg cannot agree to the regulation on the national and regional partnership plans. This is for the reasons set out by my Prime Minister, namely, that the provisions included in. This proposal would make binding through the MFF the recommendations of the European Semester for US recommendations cannot and should not be binding. Thank you.”
  EU fiscal rules and oversight of national budgets
• 2026-06-16 “The key point is that every euro suspended under the EU budget should have the strongest possible effect on the greatest leverage. We welcome the pro the new approach for the EIB. We don't need to keep reinventing the wheel. We have the EIB, which works. Let's avoid inventing or developing new instruments, new boards. We have the EIB. And I think it's very important to stress that point. The other points concerning, uh, income. It's very important to continue along the lines. Same lines with own resources. Some approaches at Etsy, waste or Cbam are more promising than others. We need to continue on an open minded debate, and we should not avoid getting into excessively early arbitrage as we approach. We support the approach of the European Commission to reduce rebates. All this is important in terms of the overall logic of modernizing the future MFF. Thank you for your attention.”
  Own EU resources
• 2026-06-16 “Thank you very much. I will start in English and then continue in in French. And I just want to say I won't speak to the next point about the MMF. I will do one speech where I took both points. I know for regular reasons you have to separate them, but when it's done I don't need to repeat the same in two hours. Um, the first thing is I've participated to a lot of budgets when I was Prime Minister, and I remember these five day sessions in Brussels where we are not sleeping and negotiating, and we can speak as much as we want. Believe me, at the end, it will be the head of state and head of governments, where they will be with Ursula and with Antonio negotiating during the night. And it will be like a souk in Marrakesh. Believe me, it's. What do you offer? What do you propose? It will be like that. I've done it. And I can tell you mostly it's working like that. Like usually I want to just raise a point because I know that some of you will say, why is he asking for that? But we ask always more tasks to the commission, but we never want to have more stuff. And I know to speak about administrative expenses is something not very popular, but I just want to tell it is difficult for the Commission to work with more work without with less staff. And also here in Luxembourg we have these points of the coefficient corrector, which is an important point. We are also a European administrative capital. I use administrative capital. I still believe we have 27 capitals around this table, and it's difficult to stay attractive if we have not this coefficient corrector. So I really would insist that this point should be at least in all your minds.”
  Size of EU budget
• “I would also like to stress that these recommendations are non-binding. They cannot replace clear, objective legislation. If we compare current measures with similar instruments that could be covered by the ring fenced fund in the future, the reduction of the future budget budget envelope is flagrant. We must therefore necessarily propose more measures for farmers. It's hard to reconcile this with fewer rules. Christoph, you propose introduction of a transition action plan for farmers. At first sight it seems very interesting. We have many questions on its feasibility and how it would be coordinated with other agro environmental measures, or indeed with support for investment, bearing in mind that the latter is an important lever for transition to more resilient production. The Commission now proposes 43% at national regional partnership should be for climate and environment. This is too much. It's too ambitious. We see a decline in instruments for the cap. It could be that they will have. There will be difficulties in making contributions to this objective. The Cap should also support other objectives food sovereignty, stabilisation of income for farmers and also generational renewal. And we must look at this today. Thank you.”
  Agricultural funding
• “Thank you, Madam Chair. Chairman. Commissioner. Thank you. Thank you also to your teams for all the effort that has gone into trying to get an agreement on this, given the timelines of conciliation. And let's hope we can also get that by today. We think that the tea leaves imply that an agreement could still be possible [00:24:00] today. You certainly have our full support to that end. There are three points I wish to make at this stage, though. First of all, like others, the annual budgetary procedure needs to remain well separated from the MFF track. The presidency has done a very good job of keeping those separate so far and pleased during the next few hours. Continue to keep this visible to Parliament because sometimes it's not easy. If you look at some of their amendments, [00:24:30] it really means the MFF would be affected. We have to formally stick to the current MFF, and we must not prejudge a mid-term review. So we have to stick to the separation. Another area we agree with other speakers before us is when it comes to commitment Appropriation margins. The Commission has proposed seems somewhat limited given what is likely to pertain in 2024, especially when we have €190 billion annual budget, give or take. And our council position, I think, would be a good example for reinforcing the margin and allowing room for that. Thirdly. The prosecutor's office. Budget needs probably to be moved up for the 20 assistant prosecutors at European level to be. As was agreed before, given the fact that [00:25:30] there are 50% more investigations that are expected. And when it comes to the court of Justice, again, a wee bit more was probably needed because of the extra costs we can expect from non wage incompressible expenditure that can be foreseen. As I've said, I believe an acceptable deal can be found for the budget and you will have our full and constructive commitment throughout the conciliation process [00:26:00] to back you up. Thank you.”
  Size of EU budget
• “Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner. Colleagues. I think the Future Culture Compass and the Future European Creative Europe programme are two sides of the same coin, and they're intrinsically linked to the importance of culture for the European project. I won't dwell on the fact that more than ever today, culture must be able to live up to its full potential in Europe, because I think we all firmly believe that already. But I would like to share three things relating to the future of the Creative Europe programme. Firstly, the increasing popularity of the programme can't be denied. This speaks not only to the real need for support for those in the cultural and creative sector, but it also shows the will to strengthen the links between different European countries. Personally, I think that it is incumbent upon all of us to work toward that and I think the future programme should mirror that. But that also means to me that without, regardless of an increased budget, we need to make sure that the programme is less dispersed and more streamlined, and needs to be more autonomous and more recognisable, and take better account of the diversity of creation and artistic expression in Europe. Now, secondly, it also needs to have simplified access to the programme, with particular attention paid to emerging structures or smaller structures as well as individual artists. That's where the impact can be the biggest. And after all, isn't that the objective of the program? Now, this should also go hand in hand with strengthening of the sectoral approach, as we've seen in Perform Europe and Music Moves Europe, which I think should be extended to other domains. Thirdly, we fully realise the challenges linked to the management of the programme and we welcome the significant efforts that have been dedicated to that.”
  EU and national cultural identities
• “Thank you. Markus. I would first like to thank the presidency for the work done so far. Luxembourg remains firmly committed to the objectives of the CIU. Advancing the CIU is necessary to foster EU competitiveness. Technical experts have only just completed a first reading of the full package. Questions whether the proposed models will foster competitiveness remain unanswered. Efficiency gains linked to direct supervision are highly questionable. Costs of double layered supervision are tremendous, and the Council Legal service recently also acknowledged legal issues linked to the Meroni doctrine. This raises serious questions about the overall calibration of the Commission's proposal. Centralized supervision is not the solution to the EU's competitiveness challenges. The discussion must rather focus on achieving convergence at limited cost and on reducing burden for market participants and national supervisors. We have insufficiently explored options to build up convergence and to eliminate gold plating. Luxembourg is open in principle to looking again into Esma's internal governance. However, the proposed Executive board does not have the necessary legitimacy to exercise far reaching powers across 27 highly diverse national markets. There is a real risk of weakening democratic accountability without clear evidence that this set up would deliver stronger supervisory expertise or better outcomes. Any governance reform must ensure meaningful involvement of national competent authorities. This is where the bulk of supervisory knowledge and market understanding resides. Thank you.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Thank [00:24:00] you, President. I think this public debate is right at the heart of public life, and we need to ensure that we defend European democracy from Slapp proceedings. Public debate has to be protected so it can be conducted. We get the impression that Slapps are used more and more to silence Uncomfortable voices, and abusive proceedings are used as an [00:24:30] effective means of intimidation and they can be effective. And for that reason, it's important to participate. Those participating in public debate against those proceedings now, the text put in the general approach does significantly improve the protection of those participating in public debate for Luxembourg. We have struck a balance between the protection measures. On the one hand, access to justice on the other. And I'd like to thank the presidency for all the work you've put [00:25:00] into striking this agreement, and we can support this general approach. Thank you.”
  Anti-SLAPP / protection of public participation
• “Thank you. I would like to express all our sympathy for our Hungarian and Slovak colleagues who have to deal with a very difficult situation, and I'd like to congratulate Istvan on his services for their rapid reaction. This highlights the importance of upholding animal health legislation and biosecurity rules set out in EU Legislation in order to make sure that after the implementation of necessary restrictions, we can start movements again from restricted areas. Thank you very much.”
  Animal diseases prevention and management in the EU
• “Thank you, chair. Good morning, commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to reply to your questions all in one go by emphasizing a couple of things that seem important to me. Firstly, like country has already said many times in the past in this meeting, we are convinced that all ambition is worthless if people outside our group don't understand why we're doing what we're doing and why and how culture is so vital for the future of the European Union. Our forthcoming work plan must reflect this concern while also bearing in mind that the situation is moving on more swiftly than ever before. Secondly, as I see it, our council working program is more than just a document setting out activities and actions. Yes. We do now have the culture compass, which sets out a strategy, a strategic background and, tells us what to do, of course. But I do not take the view that this means we don't need to define our policy objectives because as I see it at least, there is a connection between aligning things and cohesion consistency. Now, chair, I think that all of this is connected, and I think that how shall I put it? Something of a non question here. On the one hand, we do know what questions are of concern to the European culture sector across the board even if it is different in each different member state. That will therefore lead to some problems when we if we wish to proceed to having some kind of cherry picking between the various different priorities, which have been disadvantaging some other priorities. Even though the program gives us a kind of checklist for priorities, as I see it, it's more a matter of making sure we have continuity, an intelligent continuity between our work programs. On the other hand, as your guidance note says, flexibility has got to be the guiding principle for the forthcoming work program. And I would add here that we also need to have the idea of responsiveness. It's less a matter of identifying priority x, y, and zed, saying that one subject is more important than another. It's more about being able to respond to questions at the moment they arise. And that, as I see it, means that we are concerned with our working methods, the work we do here in this council. Now I do understand that this is not something which people like to hear mentioned. Fair enough. But you can't have the one thing without the other. If we want to make sure that our specific actions are a proper response to the current situation at any moment and if we want to make sure that our ambitions actually make sense. I'd like to finish off by talking about this question of ambition, chair. I think the forthcoming work plan must stand up to the level of our ambitions, and that's why it does seem to me that we should proceed well, I would like to say, it would be one of the forthcoming presidencies that will be called upon to implement this work program. Thank you very much.”
  EU and national cultural identities
• “We support the approach that has been suggested so that we don't, um, mask the real values of imports. Now, the ETS shows us how important it is for us to find a durable solution to avoid carbon leakage, uh, alongside cbam. Uh, in particular with a view to the revision of the ETS. So we need to make sure that the free um, amounts set out in the ETS are maintained, going over and beyond the amounts fixed to avoid carbon leakage at export. And I would like to welcome or underline rather that we are fully in line with the messages that the Commissioner has set out here. Having said that, this is an investment tool and not a taxation tool, and that needs to be properly understood by companies as well. Trade defence instruments are also very important. Safeguarding measures in the steel sector are going in the right direction, but we need to have agreement with the Co-legislator before the 1st of July. Let me quickly emphasize that the question of the time to market is also an important subject, because we have periods which are much too long. If a company takes three years to get its products on the European market and eight months to get onto the Chinese market. We know very well that we have too much complexity and that is not improving quickly enough.”
  Carbon leakage support
• “Chair. Commissioner. Colleagues. Commissioner Luxembourg supports you in your mission to reduce the administrative burden on citizens, businesses and administrations, namely within the framework of the revision of the regulation. Unfortunately, we have noted that the discussions that are still open on several chapters concerning, for example, legislation on prior notification are not in the are not going in the direction of administrative simplification, in our opinion. Indeed the reduction of administrative of additional administrative burdens has been achieved, but they become more complex when they are digitalized. The application of these rules, or whether they are on paper or digital, is crucial, and these are rules themselves, are the ones that should be simplified. This would also allow the implementation that is more simple on a national level. And instead of adding administrative burdens on our institutions at this level, digitalisation that has already been implemented especially is he has been has added value. It has allowed us to to transfer information and documents in a structured fashion. However, gains are possible by simplifying the rules themselves Or at least by not rendering them even more complex e.g. by applying that think small first principle. It is also a priority on the on the national level to simplify the revision of rules, to act, to render the access of two social services more simple. Is there something which we have done? For example, digital digitalisation in medical insurance in Luxembourg has allowed patients and and medical professionals to have direct access to the necessary techniques on the basis of IT and financial methods. This will allow or is allowing the access to these services in a simplified manner, and this supports also the efforts in other areas. The. This represents also a force of the EU and based on the principle of diversity, Luxembourg supports all efforts made to increase efficiency by means of simplified rules. These efforts will allow us to provide better support to those who are who require these means. Thank you.”
  Overall simplification of regulation in the EU
• “Thanks, Luis. I'd like to thank the Spanish presidency for having put this on the agenda so [00:38:00] quickly. Both in SCA and in council. This directive has a lot of impact on farming, soil use, and our involvement is essential in discussing this document. Farmers know better than anyone else that soil fertility is essential for food security in Europe. Degradation and pressure on land is increasing across Europe. We [00:38:30] do, however, have questions about the percentages for the 6,070%. Statement of unhealthy soil proportion in Europe, as it were. If you look at the Framework water Framework Directive and the one out all out approach, I mean, this is another thing we have doubts about the idea. You can adapt it to this soil contact. I think, quite frankly, we need a more nuanced approach, a more phased in approach. [00:39:00] We tend to agree with what others have said before. There are a lot of questions about the implementation. The administrative burden and costs across the board. And then there's the consistency and complementarity between different parameters and measures for implementation of different parts of the proposal and the different proposals pertaining to soil. And general, our initial analysis, looking at your questions, we'd say the following on the first question monitoring. [00:39:30] [00:39:32] This is going to require considerable extra effort in Member States. Most of it is going to be on farming soils and our farming departments need to be involved in implementation right from the outset. Secondly, some of the measures for soil protection currently already come under conditions that farmers have to follow and are part of the general greening of the cap. [00:40:00] So some of these already covered. There are also legal issues in our view, when it comes to data protection and owners rights and the interplay of different people's confidentiality rights. These could be an issue we have to tackle carefully in the future. On the second question, the first year of the implementation in Luxembourg has seen a lot of solid protection measures being stepped up by our farmers. For instance, [00:40:30] reduced tillage and nitrate capture, intermediate measures and soil coverage during the winter and so on and so forth. Leguminous crops and pulses being included in rotation is increasing as well because farmers can see that this type of land use is good for the soil. Agri environmental measures. Climate measures and so forth also [00:41:00] can be tied into discussion on scientific and special training for farmers, and we would welcome more of that. Thank you.”
  Soil protection policy
• “The Commission is proposing to provide an exemption for most standards from for organic farms. I think that that should also apply to farms which are turning into organic farms. So that and including farms, only parts of the crops of which are organic. I think we could have been more ambitious in simplifying conditionality. We would have liked to generalize the approach of replacing standards with eco systems, and focusing on regulating regulatory aspects in terms of management. That would have been a real simplification in terms of on the spot controls without lessening our environmental ambitions. Finally, we agree with the once only approach so that at national level, we can provide as much facility as possible to administrative procedures. We're going to be looking at the proposals for application of, or setting up a specific authority in charge of managing the cap. Finally, as I said at the last council, I agree, as Francesco has said, and that the CFP simplification package should be discussed in the council. Doing anything else would be a first step in the wrong direction. Any political decision on the cap must be taken by agriculture ministers. Thank you.”
  Agriculture (green)
• “Thank you. Chairman. I think that we all agree that the Draghi report should be welcomed. It's a very solid basis. It's a sincere presentation of the future prospects, and it weighs up the challenges and the opportunities when it comes to electricity. We would just like to highlight two general points. First of all, decarbonisation is a key economic opportunity to boost European competitiveness and competitiveness of member states by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels so we can take up the energy and climate challenges that we face and also boost our resilience. Second thing, the single market is the key tool to boost competitiveness in Europe. Obviously we share in that vision. As Mr. Letta said before the Draghi report. He also highlighted the importance of moving forward with the energy single market and the energy union when it comes to the decarbonisation strategy. Obviously, we support Mr. Draghi's appeal to speed up the process to guarantee long term competitiveness. Electrification are based on renewable energy. Integration of energy systems, flexibility and also strengthening networks are all essential and are coordination within the single market is the only way, as we see it, for us to make the most of our assets. So it's in this spirit that we would like to recall that we need to be cautious when it comes to committing ourselves to revising. The electricity market of the 2023, revision was a very well balanced solution we feel, so we need to place the emphasis on implementation of the legislation that has already been adopted. Having said that, key technologies like energy efficiency, heat pumps, geothermal energy and batteries and those are not receiving the attention they deserve. And that goes for the Draghi report as well. So we need to invest more in strategic solutions which are profitable, effective, efficient. So any solutions we consider need to bear in mind a cost speed, the scale of our efforts and also security. When it comes to energy intensive industries, we would like to have a very well coordinated approach in Europe so that we can have fair a level playing field and to protect the single market. So there we need to have a true European team spirit so that we can address sensitive political decisions. We have competitiveness, limited budgets, allocation of costs and the energy transition to bear in mind. And we can see that the emphasis is often placed on big companies. And we think that it's important to pay particular attention to SMEs. They also play an essential role in the European economy and when it comes to the energy transition. And having said that, thank you very much, president.”
  Energy (green transition)
• “Mr. president, the Commission. Thanks very much indeed. Commissioner, this is a very important proposal. We do need to have a level playing field for all companies and protect them against unfair competition from those people who use these abject practices, like forced labour [00:41:00] and child forced labour. These products shouldn't be on the in the internal market. Our Slovenian colleague highlighted the fact that the strongest means would be to use the internal market. The EU is an open economy and I want to highlight the support for the Commission's approach. It's focused on products and based on risks. We [00:41:30] have to look at problematic situations, but try not to have companies put under general suspicion because of, um, condemnable behavior of a minority thereof. So we need to maintain this approach, the approach in further negotiations. However, when it comes to, um, in situ, um, research, I think it's important that the commission play a very important [00:42:00] role to make sure that we can ensure, uh, efficiency and uniform implementation throughout the union decision to ban a product on the market. That should be up to the European Commission. To guarantee the efficiency of the tool, the Commission should assume a key, preponderant role throughout the whole process, from the research to the decision making point. That is a guarantee also, uh, for us to have differing [00:42:30] approaches if 27 national authorities are in charge of that process and we just need consistency, coordinating administrative cooperation, as in the proposal, the initial commission proposal, that would have been insufficient. However, during the process, if there is a decision to ban, then national authorities should be in charge of implementing that using the very efficient tools that are already there when it comes to [00:43:00] market surveillance, as in the Commission's proposal, so we can support the Spanish presidency to give greater strength, a larger role to the Commission. Even though we know that this is just an initial, uh, step. This is a simplification.”
  EU policy on labour exploitation in global supply chains
• “Sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um. I would like just to provide a few points about the Luxembourgish position. What's very important is safety for all GMOs, including the plants obtained by these techniques. Luxembourg supports Austria's request to continue to provide full risk assessment in line with GMO regulations, and to invest in research relating to biosecurity and detection. We need to avoid that risk assessment requirements are reduced. That could have considerable consequences for nature and for the environment. From an environmental perspective, it's important to keep to the precautionary principle when it comes to the potential unknown, long term or indirect effects of using these new genomic techniques. Comprehensive labelling which would allow consumers to make an enlightened choice is incredibly important. Thank you.”
  New Genomic Techniques
• “Thank you. Chair. It's clear [00:28:00] that we can support any initiative that helps SMEs, especially if we are trying to combat payment delays. There are three points which overlap. With what? A lot of what has already been said. First of all, we think that we need to highlight this and stress the word delay. We're not sure that this concept is quite equal to the freedom of [00:28:30] contract of payment periods set between the parties to contract debtors to a contract also need to have some flexibility. And that's why we think that the strict 30 day payment period is far too inflexible. We think that there needs to be flexibility so that SMEs can determine payment periods that are in line with the goods and services that they provide. This is very similar to other delegations [00:29:00] position. A second important point for us about the national enforcement authorities. The responsibility that they would have would provide a very large administrative burden burden and would also. Impinge on the jurisdiction of various courts. Courts are in a position to rapidly issue payment orders, and we think that it might [00:29:30] be disproportionate and ineffective to have a new authority to do something similarly. Thirdly, we can fully support the choice of legal instrument. We can support this regulation. We think that the cross-border nature of the matter is inherent to EU companies, and we believe that a regulation would make it easier to deal with the cross-border aspects of payment delays. Thank you very much, chair. And we are sure [00:30:00] that you can make progress on this file. Thank you very much”
  EU rules on late commercial payments
• “35:58 – 16:37:46): Thank you, Nico. Dimitris, and in detail, I would like to briefly take the opportunity to present the outcome of the D9 plus ministerial meeting that was held yesterday in Luxembourg. Together with the European Commission and the Cyprus presidency, we had very productive discussions on essentially three topics. First of all, digital sovereignty, then the long-term vision on simplification, and thirdly, the protection of minors online. Regarding digital sovereignty, D9 plus ministers emphasized the importance of an open and pragmatic approach that recognizes the strategic role of international partnerships with like-minded countries that share our common European values and principles. Regarding the simplification agenda, ministers underlined the necessity to assess the need for a long-term and substantial revision of the digital rule book based on impact assessment, and the digital fitness check will play a very important role in that regard. Finally, on the protection of minors online, we had a fruitful exchange with the co-chairs of the special panel put into place by the European Commission on the protection of minors online as well as with a professor from the University of Luxembourg. In this context, most ministers insisted that it is essential that we deliver a truly common European approach to protect minors online by combining regulation, technology, and education in order to have a real impact for the safety of minors online. In this context, I would also like to thank the Cyprus presidency for keeping this important topic on the agenda. We had discussion in the informal council meeting, and we look forward to the Irish presidency to continue our discussion around the urgency to act on providing a safe environment for children online. Thank you very much.”
  Safety features & content control for child protection online
• “President. Thank you to the presidency for your perseverance today. We support you to reach an agreement on this difficult file. At the same time, however, we need we need to be able to move forward on a focusing on 1.5 degrees in line with science and the Paris Agreement. We will be celebrating its 10th anniversary very soon. We cannot accept a smoke screen or moving backwards. The recent conclusions of the European Council have recognised the existential threats that pose climate change. Also, the text states that the increasing resilience and competitiveness and the green transition are all objectives that are mutually reinforcing each other. Everything has been said in that paragraph, but this does not mean that the conclusions lose any of their weight. We need a facilitating objective means that to be able to react to circumstances and the current world, now we have to take on our responsibilities that our joint responsibilities and reach a conclusion on this file. We need to focus on the key words that are credibility and investment. Certainty. Luxembourg, since the very beginning, Has a supported the 2040 objectives of of a reduction of 90% of greenhouse gas emissions. And here we need to focus on credibility. The compromised that will be revised, and that has been proposed by the presidency, is acceptable for a large part of the text. I believe that we are very close to an agreement. The uncertainty in terms of investment is fundamental. Now as to international credits, I support the possible 2036 objectives limited to 3%, and they have to be targeted. Our approach has to be one that will be a safety net, and that will only be achievable if our objectives could not be reached, i.e.”
  Energy (green transition)
• “Thank you. Jacob. Thank you for the preparation for today's debate on the green architecture. I would like to recall the various aspects. We are here to support our farmers, to strengthen the cap, we must prevent its weakening. And I repeat once more, we support Christoph. Our global analysis of the reform package is ongoing. We are doing preparatory work. This has shown the complexity involved. It's quite a puzzle. I believe we must bring together elements on the cap in one text. Thank you, Norbert, for this initiative. All the legislative elements, the most important ones regarding the cap should be negotiated within the Council of Agriculture ministers. Dear colleagues, I have stressed that the last council meeting that we need to go further in simplification of conditionality, the new concept of management for sustainable agriculture farm stewardship is not really a simplification. In reality, all the rules for a good conditions are expanded in the area of protection of water. One size fits all is not appropriate. We must take into account specific situations on the ground in different member States. I hope that the national recommendations for the Cap are treated likewise. Thank you to the Commission for offering close technical cooperation. We must get recommendations quickly so we can make progress with our consultation process for the next program period.”
  Agriculture (green)
• “Thank you very much. I'd like to start by thanking the Spanish presidency for the excellent paper that you submitted to us today. [00:50:30] We believe that these conclusions very clearly identify the different challenges facing rural regions. Some of these rural regions are faced with a risk of de-population. Others, such as those in my country, are seeing an important increase in the population size. And so the questions faced by these regions and their villages are not necessarily the same. The major challenge [00:51:00] is to step up the level of cohesion between previous inhabitants and new inhabitants of our multicultural villages. That requires a strong, diversified rural development policy. If we are going to make it possible for these regions to develop in a sustainable economic and social way. From that point of view, an integrated and holistic approach is going to be needed. We need to bring in the various instruments and funds that [00:51:30] we have available to us in the European Union and at the national level. For us, the important thing is for rural areas to be able to continue to develop economically, diversify and have a strong agricultural sector with a diversified and sustainable food production system. And I say sustainable both in economic and environmental terms. I think the text we have before us covers all the main points that are important to us. And we would therefore just [00:52:00] like to conclude by congratulating the Spanish presidency and say we support these this support the text.”
  Cohesion and rural funding
• “Thank you, David, and thank you to Cheslav for introducing this topic. As I said at the first table round this morning, we feel that we need to ensure this overall consistency between European policies, between the Green Deal and climate policy and the Cap, on the other hand. So I would like to support our Polish colleague regarding the impact of the 2040 targets for greenhouse gas [00:06:30] emissions, the impact that this will have on the farming sector. In order to be politically coherent, we have to strike a balance between the 2040 objective and the need to safeguard food security in the EU. So we have to set realistic targets for the farming sector. Thank you.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you, Jakob, thanks for the presentation of this national program, although it may seem interesting to limit greenhouse gas emissions in this way, we remain convinced that it is too soon to assess such a system and its benefits without a proper overview of its potential impacts. We take the view that a one size fits all solution is not appropriate for all the member states. When it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector, we are thus not in favour of the introduction of binding quotas and emission limits for greenhouse gas emissions. I would also like to recall in this context that all high value agricultural areas are of importance to us. Thank you.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you, chairman. Recognition of parenthood is the missing link in due to cooperation in civil matters as it stands. Luxembourg has always supported the commission's initiative to resolve this. Recognition of parenthood for a child would make it much easier, simpler, and less costly for families to deal with some of the concrete issues they encounter in this context. Regarding the most essential aspects of the compromised text, we would like this wider scope possible to risk have a restrictive approach to parenthood would, in our view, mean difference of treatment between children would be potentially possible, and this is about child rights, so we should avoid that. As to what we could do, this is important. So we should take the time it needs to understand each other's positions better and try to find landing zones that fit us all. At the end of the day, our aim is freedom of movement and recognition of parenthood together as a concrete reality in as many member states as possible. The progress your presidency and previous presidencies have made are welcome, and we pay tribute to them. At this stage, though, we need to continue working at expert level so that we hope during the Irish presidency, we'll get a consolidated text that can have the support of the widest possible range of member states. Thank you.”
  LGBTIQ+
• “Thank you very much indeed. First of all, congratulations are in order for Commissioner Hoekstra. I'm very happy to see that we can continue to work together. Many thanks to the presidency for putting this item on the agenda, and for keeping our attention on this very key subject for our future. We are all bearing witness to destabilizing, destructive effects of climate change. The frequency and order of magnitude continues to increase. Collective action is very much necessary in order to mitigate and also to adapt to these changes. I share the analysis of the Commission, according to which decarbonisation and competitiveness in our economy and industry are inextricably linked. Decarbonisation is a real economic opportunity, a genuine one. I look forward to the new proposal on the Climate Act from the new commission, with the targets for 40. The publication should come together with the proposals of the Clean Industrial Act, and this will enable us to have a logical follow up to what we saw. The outcome was of the Draghi report. I would also call for another proposal, help to help us for the next NDC of the European Union. Now we're going through turbulent times, and the European Union does need to be a reliable and credible player. Investments, banks, citizens they all need a predictable and stable regulatory framework in place. Our partners at international level are counting on us, probably more than ever in order to make progress. And as regards the implementation of the Paris Agreement for the next cycle of climate ambitions, and to follow up on engagements and commitments made in financing terms.”
  Energy (green transition)
• “Thank you, Luis, for putting this on the agenda. [00:08:30] And thank you for the excellent summary document that you have provided us with. And thank you, Janusz and DG agri, for the detailed report on the strategic plans approved by the Commission. I have taken good note that the future Belgian presidency has planned activities along this same track. The preparation year 22 and the first year of implementation of the strategic plans [00:09:00] have been a major challenge for the authorities, particularly the paying agencies and the farmers. Different discussions on simplification of certain procedures have taken place in recent months, particularly on the procedures for amending the strategic plans. That discussion has taken place in Council, and I am convinced that strategic plans need to go back to their initial purpose and be strategic. The technical aspects [00:09:30] are considerable, but should not override the policy purpose. Where subsidiarity and flexibility are part and parcel of that. We need to work together and we're counting on the Commission and its services in order to reach that goal. Directors general in all member states recently sent a letter to DG agri on the follow up system for the area monitoring [00:10:00] system. For me, stability and predictability are necessary in the cap. If we want to work in the medium Tum and achieve tangible results from an environmental, economic and social point of view. We need that stability and that predictability for the administrations, but mainly for our farmers. If we wish to see active participation, participation on their part in [00:10:30] these measures. I've taken good note of the Commission's report on the content and the cumulated effects of the strategic plans. It's a very useful and comprehensive document, which enables us to pass the message to the public on the efforts that the Cap make for the environment and the climate. And also within the context of budget negotiations. Having said that, [00:11:00] let us not forget that apart from the strategic plans of the Cap, member states also put in place national measures, particularly for risk management and, uh, to take account of specific environmental and regional challenges. Merit an overall view which goes beyond the strategic plans. Uh, Janusz. Luis, I'd like to welcome [00:11:30] what president von der Leyen, uh, announced for the initiation of the strategic plans in January. Thank you very much.”
  Agricultural funding
• “Thank you very much, president. Congratulations, first of all, on your presentation of the presidency's priorities. I can see that there is general convergence, uh, of points of view between your approach and ours. And you can count on the support to see them through. Like many previous speakers, I would like to stress that the foremost priority for us too is and has to remain support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, as well as the need to bring an end to the spiral of violence that we're seeing in the Middle East again, a point made already by others. We're very pleased to see competitiveness and put at the centre of your priorities. This is something which we believe has to be a priority. On the basis of the letter and Draghi reports. You have plenty of substance to bring to the table with a view to promoting discussions and finding solutions, which will help our companies make better use of the single market and finding solutions to the excessive red tape, which is so problematic for our companies at the moment. And finally, we would like to stress how important enlargement is for us too. As has been said by previous speakers. Thank you.”
  EU enlargement
• “Thank you. Commissioner colleagues, first of all, I would like to congratulate the Belgian presidency for the conclusions that we adopted, as well as the work programme that was approved. Self organised sport, as covered by the conclusions, covers a broad scope and the work programme as well has some very interesting and innovative developments in [00:21:30] it. And I'd also like to congratulate the presidency for all of the meetings and conferences that have been organised during the six month period. I haven't heard anything but the most positive things when it comes to the debate. Then I would very much agree with what the president said when it comes to the key role played by volunteers in European sport, and more broadly when it comes to national cohesion as well. Statistics show that in Europe, 10% of Europeans are involved in volunteering [00:22:00] in sports. But according to the same study, I think Luxembourg can be quite proud of the fact that we're at 19%, according to national surveys that we've carried out. 59% of our citizens are involved in volunteering of some some sort and a large amount in sports. Specifically, the focus that's been set on volunteers here is really part of the work that our coalition government is doing. We really want to make sure that the work carried [00:22:30] out by volunteers is recognised by way of some sort of badges, perhaps digital badges that would see that would clearly set out what skills they required. And we also have initiatives ongoing to gather together the ministers who are responsible for this, who will set in place actions to promote the work. Volunteering is based on non-professional structures, but without these sport would not exist at the level it is today. [00:22:59] So we're [00:23:00] really relying on the involvement of sport of volunteers, and we have put in place specific kinds of leave which are available to people who take part in volunteering. They can take that on top of their annual leave so that they can get involved. So this is something that's available to elite professionals initially, but it was extended last year to other athletes and to other people who are involved in the sporting world, as well as to volunteers as well. Now, this kind of leave [00:23:30] isn't just for those who are taking part in competitions specifically, but it's for the preparation for competitions, etc. as well. All those involved in the administration and organisational side of things, side of things as well. And we have a specific amount of days set out depending on the level of the of the sport carried out. So the salary of those who are involved in this of course, as well is paid by the state to then when it comes to the obstacles that exist and potential [00:24:00] solutions that could be found and what we can do at the EU level, I think we need to make volunteering more attractive overall, and that's something that we did by putting in place the provision on the leave that's available to volunteers. We need to have a system in place which will recognise the skills, the expertise that's been acquired and also which recognises the economic aspect and the way that volunteers help our economies as well as our societies. Thank you very much.”
  EU volunteering programs
• “Thank you, Louise, and thank you for putting this on the agenda for today's council. Thank you to the Commission for your proposal. Luxembourg is committed to the fight against food waste. We've been working on this since 2016. There have been many initiatives to inform and raise awareness in the farming sector and also among consumers on this subject. All these initiatives have been voluntary, but they have borne fruit. In 2018 and 2021, we've seen a reduction of 23% in a residual food waste in commerce. The restaurant sector and in households. All of this has been supported by the Agriculture Ministry through awareness raising campaigns and also financial assistance. Just to answer your specific questions, our preliminary analysis of the [00:29:30] proposal is positive on the basis of the data we have at the moment. The aim of a 30% reduction in food waste in the hotel and catering sector, households and commerce. That seems realistic. The 10% reduction figure? Well, we'll have to make more of an effort on that at 20. In 2018, we collected a data on food waste, and we appreciate the fact that the commission proposal is taking [00:30:00] into account the efforts we've been making since that date. [00:30:03] Second question on the appropriate tools to achieve the objectives. Well, we have to continue with our awareness raising and information activities for the whole of the food supply chain. People need to be educated to eat locally on a seasonal basis, and they need to be taught to avoid waste. But we also need to carry out an in-depth analysis of the causes of waste. This analysis [00:30:30] will allow us to take specific actions where necessary. So on these strategic points, we need to propose aid to the sector so that the set objectives can be attained. Finally, we also need to provide more information about the impact of food waste. So the financial impact but also the impact on ecosystems. So this would enhance local production and it would [00:31:00] raise awareness of the consequences of all of this. This could be based on a voluntary approach, but all the stakeholders need to be involved so that we can actually bring about a behavioural change on a lasting basis. Thank you.”
  Food waste
• “Food sovereignty cannot go hand in, can go hand in hand with the zero emissions goal. And we need to have a mid-term review of the trajectory for ammonia emissions. When it comes to the protein plan, we need to create more incentives to develop crops using Cap tools and reviewing rules for coupled aid in order to make sure that crops protein crops are not so unprofitable compared with other crops. When it comes to origin, country labelling and animal welfare labelling, we are in favour of voluntary labelling, but we are of the view that we need better labelling and distinguishing between EU origins and non EU origins for all foodstuffs. On to the third question. The new agricultural challenges require investment in research and innovation. Given that the digitalisation strategy for agriculture, we particularly support the principle highlighted by the Commission collect once, use many times. We also need to make sure that access to financing for research and innovation problems in Europe, in Europe is not overburdened by administrative burdens, and we are also interested in clarification from the Commission regarding the timetable envisaged and how they intend to implement the vision and the different strategies and the simplification packages. Thank you.”
  Food labelling harmonisation at EU level
• “Thank you very much, presidency. [00:12:00] I'd like to say I'm very happy to be here for the first time with you all. And I look forward to looking to working with you constructively. Let me stress that we are in favour of European and national efforts to better protect victims. The victim must be in a position to obtain compensation in the context of criminal proceedings that can be done in Luxembourg. [00:12:30] As things stand. But sometimes the civil avenue can be useful. So we need to have some sort of flexibility. As to the proposal whereby we would oblige competent authorities to pay compensation up front. We understand the well-meaning intentions of the commission, but we need to consider that a compensation of any victim for of any offence could be far too great a financial and [00:13:00] administrative burden for member states. So we agree with many other colleagues on that subject. And then it could also constitute a the wrong kind of message to put across. We could limit this to certain specific cases, certain, uh, crimes and certain types of damage. So physical damage or psychological damage, for example. And then we would also raise the point that we need [00:13:30] consistency with the directive on the violence perpetrated against women. Another, uh, question, now that you've raised as to the single, uh. Bonus model. We would be open to that. We think that it could be useful to use that. The main need to be some flexibility, however, on how it's implemented [00:14:00] so as to take into account the territorial specificities in the Member states and maintain it initially, at least for the most serious cases. But of course, nothing would prevent member states from going beyond that and indeed applying the Banhos model to other types of crime. Thank you.”
  EU policy on victims' compensation rights
• “Thank you very much, Mr. President. And also welcome to a new Commissioner. Dear Apostolos. Congratulations for having been able to take up this very important portfolio. These are important files because they concern every single citizen in the European Union. So I very much look forward to working with you as well. I also want to congratulate the presidency for having found this compromise text. We want to support this. We hope that this will really have a dissuasive effect on reckless drivers throughout the EU, because I think collectively, all of us, we want to improve road safety. And this is one piece of the puzzle to get to our Vision Zero by 2050. So we also hope that with the European Parliament, negotiations can proceed swiftly that we can adopt this important piece of legislation. And beyond that, I think communication nationally but also perhaps jointly, will be important on this file so that every single citizen in the EU will be aware of, well, having to step down, perhaps driving that they don't do in their own country, but do beyond because until then there were no consequences necessarily. Thank you very much.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• “Thank you very much, chair. We welcome this proposal of the 20 eighth regime favorably. It's an ambitious initiative which will strengthen the single market and will stimulate Europe's competitiveness. There are a few points that we're particularly pleased with. Firstly, putting in place a harmonized legal framework, an optional digital requirements, the automatic, recognition of EU Inc. Across all member states, which will favor mobility and cross border transactions, administrative simplification and reduction of the cost of setting up companies, and targeting the needs of innovative companies, startup scale ups, which are particularly affected by the fragmentation we have in the EU. Now having said that, in order for this 20 eighth regime to really meet those objectives, it has to be set on a solid foundation to inspire confidence and trust. And therefore, the proposal should focus on harmonization of company law and should exclude any tax provisions fully respecting the national laws when it comes to labor laws and, workers' rights. When it comes to simplification, there also has to be a high level of legal certainty and prevention of fraud, money laundering, and abusive practices, and to ensure that the technical aspects can be put in place, swiftly and within the timeline foreseen. There's a nonpaper that my colleague from The Netherlands just referred to, cosigned between the 3 Benelux countries. And then we consider that the 20 eighth regime is an opportunity to modernize Europe's companies, and we hope that the final text will be able to bring together all of those aims with the interests of the stakeholders for a resilient and innovative European Union. We would also like to highlight that the proposal on the 20 eighth regime is only 1 piece of the puzzle and will not be able to resolve all of the problems that our companies face when they want to operate across borders. So alongside this proposal, we will also need other instruments in order to continue the integration of the single market and reduce fragmentation. And we're thinking in particular of facilitating the setting up of economic activities across the EU?”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Thank you, Peter. And thank you to the Commission for those very useful explanations. In general, we agree with the ambitions in the Commission proposal. Nationally, we recently submitted our third National Plan for the Protection of Nature, and it also includes some ambitious targets for 2030. We need to take into [00:34:00] account what's being done in the National Strategic plans. Those strategic plans have only just started to be implemented. Our National Action Plan for the Protection of Nature says that the strategy that this will be implemented in in tandem with our strategy strategic plan when it comes to agriculture, we need to make sure that there is a dovetailing of the different initiatives for soils, pesticides, etcetera. The main [00:34:30] aim of agriculture should remain the need to ensure a quality food supply. Agriculture also has a strategic role to play when it comes to ensuring food sovereignty, food autonomy at European level, and we also have certain global responsibilities as well. I would like to make some general comments on monitoring and indicators. First of all, we need [00:35:00] to have the necessary resources so that we can have effective and transparent monitoring. We need to find appropriate indicators for each European region and each form of agriculture, whilst ensuring a level playing field when it comes to evaluation. And we need to build synergies with existing indicators that can be found in national strategic plans. Finally, [00:35:30] we took good note on what colleagues have said about peatlands and support those comments. Thank you.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU
• “Thank you, Peter. And thank you for your presentation. Commissioner. The protection of biodiversity in general and the protection of pollinators in particular are priorities for our governments. Recently we adopted our national plan for pollinators, and we have set some very ambitious protection [00:35:00] targets and also a range of measures to implement. We have targeted restrictions for insecticides in certain areas, and we also have support measures designed to promote biodiversity. These support measures involve non productive areas and the creation and protection of landscape. A structural features and all this is enshrined in our national strategic plan. Thank you.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU
• “Thank you very much. Precision farming and the efficient use of phytosanitary products, in particular, are essential elements in the development of a sustainable agriculture. Aerial spraying using drones can play a key role in this development, because application is much more precise and the risks are lower. We have already authorized pilot projects for aerial spraying using drones in vineyards as part of our National Action Plan to reduce the risks linked to the use of pesticides. However, in order to make sure that drones can be permanently used, we need proper criteria and proper procedures in place so that we can really look at what the risks are. So we support the request of the Portuguese delegation for a legislative proposal on this matter, which would set out rules for the use of drones. Thank you.”
  Digital and precision farming
• “Thank you. I wanted to start by thanking the Hungarian presidency very much indeed for organizing this summit on vaccinations in the presence of the Western Balkans veterinary services, as well as the EU member states. We've seen a number of animal outbreaks recently on the EU's territory and also in neighbouring countries. Hence, it's all the more important to put in place or to bolster the cooperation mechanisms between veterinary services, such that we can effectively combat the transmission of animal diseases across borders. We can therefore support the presidency conclusions, in particular on how important it is to cooperate on vaccines and also on the need to support EU veterinary services and lend that support to the Western Balkans.”
  Animal diseases prevention and management in the EU
• “Thank you very much. Our minister had to leave, unfortunately. So I will be speaking [00:13:00] instead. We support the proposal for introducing Euro seven standards. It's essential that pollution in real conditions for combustion engines that we want to reduce emissions. Emissions have been reducing because we're talking about testing in real driving conditions. But there are very strict limits for testing vehicles on the road, and that means that [00:13:30] it. Tests can only be representative if they are conducted in proper circumstances. That's why we have Euro seven. Now we're not just talking about tailpipe emissions, but we also have thresholds for particles from tires and brakes. That's very important. We mustn't sweeten this proposal. On the contrary, we have to strengthen certain objectives in order to make mobility more sustainable too.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• “Thank you, Nicodemus. Luxembourg welcomes the draft regulation on European business wallets, which contributes to the objectives of simplification, administrative simplification, and competitiveness of the internal market. We believe that the work done under the Cyprus presidency has led to a balanced compromise, particularly thanks to flexibility regarding obligations for public sector bodies, the timeline for implementation, and the notification times for suppliers to the European business wallet. We also welcome clarifications made to bodies eligible to become suppliers, which make it easier to take into account control requirements by 3rd for 3rd countries. There are still some concerns with regard to requirements on cyber security, and we stick to the current compromise. We agree with it and can give our green light to general adoption. Thank you.”
  Overall simplification of regulation in the EU
• “We support the approach that has been suggested so that we don't, um, mask the real values of imports. Now, the ETS shows us how important it is for us to find a durable solution to avoid carbon leakage, uh, alongside cbam. Uh, in particular with a view to the revision of the ETS. So we need to make sure that the free um, amounts set out in the ETS are maintained, going over and beyond the amounts fixed to avoid carbon leakage at export. And I would like to welcome or underline rather that we are fully in line with the messages that the Commissioner has set out here. Having said that, this is an investment tool and not a taxation tool, and that needs to be properly understood by companies as well. Trade defence instruments are also very important. Safeguarding measures in the steel sector are going in the right direction, but we need to have agreement with the Co-legislator before the 1st of July. Let me quickly emphasize that the question of the time to market is also an important subject, because we have periods which are much too long. If a company takes three years to get its products on the European market and eight months to get onto the Chinese market. We know very well that we have too much complexity and that is not improving quickly enough.”
  Carbon leakage support
• “Thank you. Magnus. Well, everyone, Luxembourg shares France's concerns. And we agree with their call in the joint document to have urgent action regarding the environmental and economic effects of ultra fast fashion. We welcome the steps already taken under the Framework Directive on Textile Waste, and also the regulation on eco design for sustainable products, in order to reduce our carbon footprint and environmental impact. It is essential to reduce the use of resources in the textile value chain. Because this is one of the most polluting sectors of activity in the world, we want to steer our economy towards a responsible use of resources, focusing on quality that will make it possible to boost sustainability, repairability and also recycling of textiles in a competitive way. Thank you.”
  Energy (green transition)
• “25:11 – 10:26:50): you, chairman. Recognition of parenthood is the missing link in due to cooperation in civil matters as it stands. Luxembourg has always supported the commission's initiative to resolve this. Recognition of parenthood for a child would make it much easier, simpler, and less costly for families to deal with some of the concrete issues they encounter in this context. Regarding the most essential aspects of the compromised text, we would like this wider scope possible to risk have a restrictive approach to parenthood would, in our view, mean difference of treatment between children would be potentially possible, and this is about child rights, so we should avoid that. As to what we could do, this is important. So we should take the time it needs to understand each other's positions better and try to find landing zones that fit us all. At the end of the day, our aim is freedom of movement and recognition of parenthood together as a concrete reality in as many member states as possible. The progress your presidency and previous presidencies have made are welcome, and we pay tribute to them. At this stage, though, we need to continue working at expert level so that we hope during the Irish presidency, we'll get a consolidated text that can have the support of the widest possible range of member states. Thank you. Thank”
  LGBTIQ+
• “Thank you. David. We support the request to keep the subject of animal welfare at the heart of the European Commission's programme for the next commission. We think that a high level of animal welfare is a fundamental aspect of European agriculture. Concerning the proposal on transport, we think that work in Council should start now. I'd also like to recall our priority in this file, [00:13:00] which is, in the long term, a ban on the export of animals to third countries, that is, live animals for slaughter to third countries to replace the transport of animals by the transport of products. As regards the trade in dogs and cats, we welcome the inclusion of strengthened authorisation procedures and animal welfare standards. These proposals will help to combat more effectively the illegal trade in pets, [00:13:30] and we will play a constructive role in trying to arrive at a council position as soon as possible. Thank you”
  EU requirements on animal welfare for farmers
• “Thank you very much. And thank you to the German delegation for putting this item on our agenda. We have also seen that there are new free range and development models which take into consideration animal welfare, and they completed the regulatory framework so that consumers can be informed in a transparent manner on these practices, and so that controls can take place in line with objective criteria. At this stage, however, we would like to be cautious when it comes to changes to the water content, which is a quality criteria which is very important when it comes to poultry. Thank you.”
  Food labelling harmonisation at EU level
• “Yes, thank you very much, Madam President. I didn't have the intention to take the floor because after the eighth of elections, 8th of October elections, there are many negotiations underway to form the [00:03:30] government. But to complete the table round, I would just like to join in on what was said by many delegations. We need more flexibility. Avoidance actions are a concept which are known in our national legislation, and the provisions should aim to reach a minimum harmonisation for the Member States, and this should be to have a [00:04:00] better protection of creditors independently of the rules that may have constitute exemptions to avoidance actions. There are other similar provisions. Securitisation, for example, in national legislation that constitute a derogation and should be taken into consideration. I think we need to build in flexibility in the proposed text to make sure that we don't [00:04:30] collide with national existing provisions in Member states, so generally speaking, we need more flexibility. We feel that's necessary and it is indispensable with regard to these avoidance actions.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Certificates for low carbon steel or super credits for small electric vehicles should bring true added value as long as they are defined strict criteria which guarantee the environmental integrity of their use. The Made in Euros Europe concept requires greater analysis and is worthy of that. It's an interesting avenue which should be discussed and considered in our negotiations. However, I am not in favor of flexibility allowing for greater use of alternative fuels in road vehicles. Their availability will remain limited and this should be restricted mainly to aviation and maritime transport. I also do not support the proposal for greater flexibility in 2030, which would water down the objective and spread it out over three years. I do support, however, modernizing the labeling of vehicles. Clear, transparent information is crucial to guide consumers and ensure the proper functioning of the internal market. A final point we must also ensure in our work that we limit the administrative burden to the absolutely necessary for industry and authorities. Our responsibility. Responsibility, dear colleague, is collective to remain competitive whilst guaranteeing our energy sovereignty and climate sovereignty. We must maintain both high ambition and predictability for industry. Thank you.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• “Thank you, Jacob, and my thanks to Christoph for the presentation and my thanks to the presidency for their background to today's discussion. Now, before I come on to your questions, I would just like to emphasize that keeping agriculture productive is our overwhelming priority. For that reason, we've got to do everything possible to make sure that farming can continue and can develop its to its full potential across all the EU's territories. This is can be achieved firstly by having a robust and flexible and well adapted cap, which reflects all our different situations. It's the cap with a ring fenced budget at the amount required. We therefore absolutely need to increase the ring fenced cap budget. I basically support the outlines of what our Italian friend Francesco was saying on this matter. Now, the presidency and the Commission last week were setting out some steps in the right direction, particularly regarding the additional framework for the budget of rural areas and rationalizing all the documentation regarding targeting support. I think that this should be done first and foremost by having a precise definition of who benefits from the support, and this definition must be built into the implementing measures for the Cap. We have active farmers, as we understand it nowadays, is very, very precious and must be maintained into the future. At this stage, the wording in the proposed document is not really tight enough, because it doesn't make a distinction between people who really produce foods and people who only, uh, do such things as, um, landscape maintenance.”
  Direct payments to farmers (pillar 1)
• “Madam president. Madam chair. Commissioner. Dear colleagues. Collective bargaining can play a role to combat climate change and can contribute towards [00:07:00] the transition towards a climate sustainability in different ways. Very often, collective bargaining focuses on the future organisation of a work. Subjects such as the fair transition are quite clearly part and parcel of this process. For example, in industrial tripartite negotiations in, for example, the aviation or the steel industry, the. Collective green bargaining and [00:07:30] the environment have always been key to ensure that workers are on the receiving end of good jobs and good training to make an environmental contribution to their work. This is, of course, also key to ensuring the viability of long term jobs in companies. We have a very strong tradition in Luxembourg when it comes to tripartite social bargaining between the employers, the trade unions and the government, which can guarantee the solidity of the working group to ensure that [00:08:00] the move to a green transition is equitable. Our sectoral trading centres and job centres have set up training programmes with a view to ensuring that our workforce has the necessary skills for the modern labour environment. On the second question here, the European Union and its member states should continue to work towards the continued implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. The green transition should in no way undermine or erode [00:08:30] these acquired social rights. We needed to ensure, therefore, that both business and employees can become true stakeholders in the green transition. To do this, we have to ensure that the green transition can give rise to an upward social fairness. We shall therefore ensure that we can fully involve the social partners under the auspices of our National Social Dialogue and we shall, on a regular basis, organise [00:09:00] exchanges between the members of the government in charge of the European Semester and the social partners to ensure that we can have a regular follow up and monitoring. It is also paramount to ensure that we can have an exchange of expertise and skills in close cooperation with the European initiatives, with an eye to ensuring both the green and the digital transition, as well as the Luxembourg Recovery and Resilience Plan and the ESF plus are key [00:09:30] instruments in ensuring that we can have a smooth path towards the double green and digital transition. Thank you very much indeed.”
  European Semester (social dimension)
• “Thank you very much, Madam President. At the last exchange of views here at the Environment Council on the Commission's proposed recast, we welcome the proposed level of ambition and the new elements for modernising [00:06:30] this legislation. So you should come as no surprise to hear that we regret the fact that the waters, the text has been watered down. This applies to the measures and also for the timeframe. On that note, obviously we recognise that some member states need more time. So you're quite right to offer extended deadlines for those which actually need it. But those deadlines should not mean that we delay acting in countries where it's possible to respond [00:07:00] more swiftly. We also commend the support that's been offered to new dimensions in the proposal, whether it be eliminating with Micropollutants, with quaternary treatment and the polluter pays principle, energy neutrality or collaboration with health authorities. All of these points, we feel, provide clear added value. Just to conclude, we warmly thank you, the Spanish presidency, for its efforts. The presidency can count on our support today. This is a fragile balance, [00:07:30] and we would appeal to the presidency to preserve that balance. Thank you.”
  Water pollution
• “Thank you chair. I welcome the determination and the clarity and the speed with which with which the Commissioner has outlined the problems. And we want to go in the right direction. It's good that we are looking at all the ways we can reduce energy costs, which is an essential condition, not just for the three sectors we're talking about today, but also for all industrial sectors within the European Union on steel and metals. We support the Commission's idea to move forward on Cbam. It's also a question of detail, because the scope of Cpam needs to be broadened to include more upstream products in the value chain, such as energy, mobility, uh, and uh, uh, electro uh products, for example, to avoid carbon leakage. Now, um, we need to look at everything that's, uh, important for the production of mobility and defense. Now, um, on Cbam, we need to have, uh, make sure that it's binding by default, um, so that we avoid resource shuffling. That needs to be based on the most, uh, Carbon rich production route for those countries at risk of resource shuffling, so that we can verify, because it's going to be difficult for us to verify installation by installation or plant by plant. So we need a clear calendar for these by default values and for cbam benchmarks to make sure that companies have the necessary visibility. And we need to avoid making sure that importers benefit from obsolete values, even when ETS benchmarks are getting harder for European producers.”
  Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
• “Thank you chair. I welcome the determination and the clarity and the speed with which with which the Commissioner has outlined the problems. And we want to go in the right direction. It's good that we are looking at all the ways we can reduce energy costs, which is an essential condition, not just for the three sectors we're talking about today, but also for all industrial sectors within the European Union on steel and metals. We support the Commission's idea to move forward on Cbam. It's also a question of detail, because the scope of Cpam needs to be broadened to include more upstream products in the value chain, such as energy, mobility, uh, and uh, uh, electro uh products, for example, to avoid carbon leakage. Now, um, we need to look at everything that's, uh, important for the production of mobility and defense. Now, um, on Cbam, we need to have, uh, make sure that it's binding by default, um, so that we avoid resource shuffling. That needs to be based on the most, uh, Carbon rich production route for those countries at risk of resource shuffling, so that we can verify, because it's going to be difficult for us to verify installation by installation or plant by plant. So we need a clear calendar for these by default values and for cbam benchmarks to make sure that companies have the necessary visibility. And we need to avoid making sure that importers benefit from obsolete values, even when ETS benchmarks are getting harder for European producers.”
  Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
• “Thanks very much. Just once again, I'd like to thank our commissioner for his first package of simplification, which we've been looking forward to. Now we have to take a decision quickly on this package so that it can take effect. Aware of the fact that we still have to speak with the industry in applying and changes in keeping with our national legislative procedures. Right now, we shouldn't lose time on details. The discussion on the post 2027 cap, I hope, will give us an opportunity to have a real exhaustive discussion on the future of the CFP. Right now, I'd like to point out to Christoph that you have our full support for the coming months so that we can maintain a common agricultural policy, which will be autonomous and performing, and which will support our producers and to guarantee our food sovereignty. We're also grateful to the Commission for having scrapped the annual performance clearance procedure and clarification on quality controls. Along those lines, we think we could have gone even further by leaving out the biannual performance criteria, which are no longer useful. The added value of that sort of procedure is that, and too slow for it to have a meaningful effect on the actual programming period.”
  Agricultural funding
• “Thank you, Christophe, for your presentation. We welcome the idea of separate strategies dedicated to young farmers in the framework of the next MFF. If one of the biggest challenges is access to land and access to financing to finance access to land. One of the avenues is a flexible financing tool that is adapted to young farmers, such as banking guarantees or preferential credits. The legal part is also an essential point in this strategy. We therefore suggest a one stop door to for young farmers. I, however, regret a decrease in resources dedicated to the cap in view of the future MFF. Dear Christophe, I believe that this communication is a very good basis for debates with our young farmers with whom we have already started a dialogue. Thank you.”
  Agricultural funding
• “Thank you. Dear Romina, I'd like to thank the commission for its proposal. After 30 years, it's high time for this pillar, a cornerstone for our environmental protection and the protection of our health to be strengthened. I fully support the idea of strengthening this directive that the Commission has proposed. I support the idea of introducing this idea of risk as a way to achieve environmental balance. And it's a good idea to equip large sewage works with tertiary and quaternary treatment in order to try to remove micropollutants medicines and pesticides. Those are key parts of this revision. Now, on our positive experience in Luxembourg during the Covid 19 crisis, I can fully support the idea of binding health based monitoring of wastewater, along with alongside the help of public health authorities. The polluter pays approach is positive as well, giving an extended producer responsibility to pharma and cosmetic companies, but this principle needs to be applied in an efficient way without distorting the way the single market works. Now, in the climate crisis, I think it's good for us to talk about energy efficiency. Energy neutrality in this sector. All sectors have their part to play in fighting climate change. Now, in order to get to 100% renewable energy by 2040. In order to make that feasible for small and medium sized wastewater processing plants, we need to allow them to produce this electricity over and beyond their sewage work sites themselves. We can't forget the cost of not acting. And so I think we all need to make sure this is an ambitious text to properly meet the challenges which are intensifying all around us. So, by way of conclusion, I would like to express my full support to the Swedish presidency to move these negotiations forward quickly, so that we can make it implementable as quickly as we can. Thank you.”
  Water pollution
• “Chairman. Thank you to the Hungarian delegation for putting this on the agenda. Luxembourg has been affected by animal diseases over recent years, and this has led to considerable losses. And we would also encourage us to take action across Europe in a coordinated way to promote vaccination so that we prevent spreading of diseases, which of course involves a lot of economic damage for the sectors concerned. I think that we need to improve the availability of effective vaccinations, and we would count on the EU to develop the appropriate and appropriate legislative framework for this to happen. Thank you.”
  Animal diseases prevention and management in the EU
• “Thank you. Chair. Luxembourg would like to thank the Spanish presidency for the progress made on this proposal on new genomic techniques. In our view, this is one of the key elements of the Green Deal and will enable us to attain the objectives that we set ourselves when it comes to the green transition of the agri food system. Now, this division in two categories we believe is a fair one. For as long as one category can be an innovative solution for our agriculture and GT2 category. We believe that they should still be subject to detailed risk analysis and clear labelling. Now, coexistence between these new genomic techniques and organic production continues to [00:44:30] pose a question for us. Measures need to be established at national level when it comes to establishing registries and patents as well. Needs to be a question that needs to be looked at and guaranteed. We hope that we will be able to discuss in more depth during the December Council, so that we can find a common approach that will enable us to walk down the path of innovation as far as agriculture is concerned in the EU. Thank you.”
  New Genomic Techniques
• “Thank you, Louise. And thank you also to Stella for the presentation of the additional study. Unfortunately, we're a bit taken aback by [00:43:30] it. There's nothing much new in there on the impact on food production. It's just a reminder of existing studies and we don't share your interpretation commission of the findings of these studies. In particular, when it comes to the reduction in the use of peas and in medium term that actually achieving an increase in yields or at least a stabilization, we think it's going to be 5 to 30% [00:44:00] reduction in yield depending on what we're talking about. If we stop using these peas and we don't feel that wine production could actually be considered to be of less importance. Moving on to the Presidency's questions regarding the reduction targets, we support the general approach that's in the Commission's proposal, but we feel it needs tweaking so that we find wording which is acceptable to all Member States. Ideally, we [00:44:30] would need calculation methodology that would take into account national specific features when it comes to agricultural production on the sensitive areas, amendments to the definitions and the rules that apply is absolutely crucial. And we that is our priority for this file. And in fact, we could not support this idea of an across the board ban on peas in sensitive areas that would have a major impact on [00:45:00] the EU's food sovereignty. [00:45:01] We would prefer an approach whereby the decision to extend the ban to sensitive areas would be one for the member states where it comes to nature protection areas and water protection areas and certainly national derogations for public health and infrastructure protection issues to fight invasive plant species or pests that those have to remain possible. Having a total ban on peas at [00:45:30] community level could potentially be considered for non-agricultural use, such as use in urban areas, public spaces close to vulnerable groups and also close to residential areas. Moving on to your second question now, this proposal considerably increases the administrative burden on the professional user, in particular when it comes to information on the measures taken in [00:46:00] in IPM. Now, the figures from the commission we think are too optimistic, are not too optimistic. Furthermore, low risk pesticides and biopesticides could have an important role to play in achieving our risk reduction targets while guaranteeing food sovereignty in the EU. And now we need to improve the approval procedures for these substances. [00:46:30] We don't think some of the approaches are approaches that are appropriate here. We need a voluntary system based on user user motivation. Now, we're a bit disappointed about the information in the additional study, but we are still, of course, prepared to carry on discussing the proposal. Thank you.”
  Reduction targets for pesticides