Pär HOLMGREN

Policy topics Pär HOLMGREN is active on

What Pär HOLMGREN has said (34)

• 2025-09-17 “E-003595/2025 Answer given by Executive Vice-President Séjourné on behalf of the European Commission Methylene chloride (also called dichloromethane) is restricted in the EU under the Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals 1 (REACH) for use in paint strippers. This restriction specifically targets placing on the market of this substance in paint strippers for supply to general public and to professionals as well as the use by professionals. In line with this restriction, Member States may allow its use in their territories by trained and certified professionals under specific, Member State-defined conditions. Moreover, this EU restriction also sets minimum conditions for uses of dichloromethane in paint strippers in industrial installations, such as for example, an effective ventilation in all processing areas, measures for safe handling or use of personal protective equipment and training of employees. In addition to the EU restriction, Sweden has put in place national bans for other uses of this substance not covered by the EU restriction, set in Chapter 5 of the Swedish Chemicals Agency Regulations (KIFS 2017:7) Chlorinated solvents – Kemikalieinspektionen. However, Sweden also provides for a possibility and procedure to grant exemptions to these national bans, including for uses in car batteries. While the Commission fully appreciates the concerns of the Honourable Member about the potential environment and public health issues arising from excessive emissions of hazardous substances, this specific case seems to be covered by national regulation that is additional to current restrictions under REACH. 1 http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2006/1907/2025-09-01.”
  Air quality policy · Chemicals regulation
• 2025-05-21 “P-002047/2025 Answer given by Ms Roswall on behalf of the European Commission The Commission is aware of the instructions referred to in the question of the Honourable Members. However, the Commission notes that Sweden has not yet submitted its report at the time this answer is drafted. The European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Commission have provided guidance on assessing conservation status of habitat types and species including the setting of Favourable Reference Values (FRVs) under the Habitats Directive 1 (format 2 and guidance 3 ). According to this guidance, FRVs should not, in principle, be lower than the values when the Habitats Directive came into force, as most habitats have been listed in the Annexes because of their unfavourable status. Furthermore, FRVs should be set on the basis of ecological/biological considerations and by using the best available knowledge and scientific expertise. Reporting FRVs as ‘unknown’ when they are actually known or can be set would not be considered sound practice. The EEA and the Commission will continue to provide guidance on how to establish FRVs, assess carefully Member States’ reports, and provide feedback to Member States if necessary, also in the light of the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation 4 . The EEA will carry out a public consultation before finalising the draft EU-biogeographical assessment of the data reported by national authorities. If national reports are not submitted in time, contain significant errors, display inaccuracies, involve falsification, or are only partially completed with much of the required information marked as 'unknown,' the Commission may initiate an infringement procedure. 1 Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, OJ L 206, 22.7.1992, p. 7–50. 2 https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/habitats_art17/Reporting2025/Art.17%20report%20format%2020192024.pdf/. 3 https://cdr.eionet.europa.eu/help/habitats_art17/Reporting2025/Final%20Guidelines%20Art.%2017_20192024.pdf/. 4 Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2024 on nature restoration and amending Regulation (EU) 2022/869, OJ L, 2024/1991, 29.7.2024.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU
• “And that is also, of course, including omnibus and omnibus and simplification that we do know create a huge risk for for watering down. Now, in addition, the projections show that even with full implementation, we would be very, very far from being able to reach our 2050 target of of climate neutrality. And this, I would say, showcase, uh, the urgent need to keep investing in climate action and really accelerate our work on climate mitigation. This is really a time for the EU to to double down on its efforts to fight climate change, not to step on the brakes. And I hope more policymakers in the EU will come to realise this before it's basically more or less too late. But coming back to the report, I have a few questions. I would like you to elaborate on a couple of points. First of all, can you explain in more detail why we are seeing limited progress in 2024 compared to 2023 or the previous five years average? And second, why would you say is the energy supply sector outperforming other sectors in emission reductions? And third, also, would the delay in the implementation of the ETS two affect member States Uh. And if so, how? Thank you very much. Once again.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you very much. President. Dear colleagues, please paws off my vegan burger. You know, we have so much, so incredibly much to discuss in this chamber. Talking about the Common Agricultural Policy. We need reforms to make sure that we have more farmers who can manage, who can deal with the generational shift that we need to have the transition. We also need to make sure that farmers are better paid for their products, and also for the services rendered to the ecosystems, and we need to strengthen the position of farmers throughout the supply chain. But unfortunately, on the right side of this chamber, we've got, you know, members of Parliament who are unable to leave well alone. Instead of discussing these important issues, they're trying to divert our attention to things like vegan burgers or plant based sausages. And of course, needless to say, they are put up to this by some parts of the European meat lobby. Completely unprofessional. It has nothing to do with the the position of farmers or their position. It's just a question of trying to cheese off those consumers who like to eat vegetarian, and also cheese off the farmers who are involved in the production of these produce.”
  Plant-based diet
• “Thank you very much, chair. And thank you very, very much, Giovanni, for your presentation. Not the least the fact that you stressed what's going on in Sweden right now. We do hope that we have another government in next year that can at least try to to sort things out. And a big thank you to everyone at the European Environment Agency who worked on this report for your really hard work. It is, as we all know, crucial, more crucial than ever that the EU continues to base its decisions on on fact and reality. And, uh, during this, uh, part of today's meeting and the previous part, we can, uh, see that there should be more members from the Patriots and ECR in the room to really get the big picture when it comes to, to facts and science and reality. Uh, it is worrying, of course, to see that we're not on track to meet the 2030 target and that the pace of decarbonisation is slowing down at the moment. And it's clear that in order to have any chance of meeting the 2030 target, the EU and the member states need to to stay on course on the fit for 55 legislative package and ensure proper implementation. And there is no room for postponement or watering down.”
  Climate efforts
• “(11:37:27 – 11:40:03): Least Sigrid who just spoke. I could echo all of your arguments once again, and I've said this before many times in this chamber: it cannot be stressed enough, farmers are at the forefront of battling climate change. Each year we are presented with new reports of record-breaking heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather that leads to forest fires, crop failure, emergency slaughter, and in the end closure of farms. So climate change is seriously threatening our food security, and as we probably all understand in this chamber, this will only get worse the next years and decades ahead of us. Then on top of climate change, we have an aging farmers workforce, high barriers to entry for young and new farmers, we have an input dependence at both the farm and union level, and we also have a declining biodiversity and degrading soil health across Europe. From my perspective, the next CAP first of all must secure ring-fenced funding for climate change adaptation, protection of our soils, and the reduction of input dependence. We shouldn't and cannot leave this for farmers to finance on their own. We hear that the policy should shift towards incentives, sure, but we must also finance this. Number two, we must ensure that the young and new farmers have a fair chance to start their businesses through a fair distribution of public funds and dedicated advisory service. This issue is structural and it must be addressed accordingly. And finally, and third, the EU's Common Agriculture Policy must remain common. Our food security will not benefit from a nationalization of agricultural policy. No farmer wants to produce on an EU market with twenty-seven different standards systems, which will distort the market. So I'm really looking forward to working with all of you and hope that we can constructively send a strong ENVI message to my other colleagues in the AGRI committee who may not be as constructive and ambitious as I hope that we will be together. Thank you very much.”
  Agriculture (green)
• “We know that 20 out of the last 21 months have been higher than one and a half degrees, and we know that the average has been over 1.5 degrees. So we're on the wrong side of the target. I think it's going to be difficult to discuss climate issues when a lot of people in this room seem to feel seem to think that we're below 1.5 degrees, we're above it. And once every one tenth of a degree increase is going to lead to great economic and humanitarian costs. And when we see that so many of the natural Ecosystems. Both seas and forests are not working as well. As carbon sinks as we thought they were. Given all that, we're in the middle of a literally burning climate crisis. And we know that a lot of people on the right of the chamber do everything to get rid of all environmental legislation. And on the other side of the Atlantic, we have a president who's pulled out of the Paris Agreement and is denying that there's a climate crisis. So we've really got to stand strong. We've got to take the lead.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you very much, Chair. And I could actually start by just copying what Pascal Canfan just said, but I could continue with a few other points as well. And I'm doing this instead of Martin Häusling, who is the Shadow Rapporteur for the Greens. The Common Agriculture Policy post-2027 must be a turning point. We do have the science, we have the strategic dialogue, and we also have an escalating climate crisis on our hands. If we are to deliver on our environmental objectives, climate mitigation and adaptation, and also support a generational renewal, we need to urgently begin redistributing the CAP budget towards rewarding ecosystem services and support for those farmers who need it the most. I think, at least I hope, that we all in this room, at least on some level, agree that public money should go to public goods. The public goods we most urgently need now are climate and water resilience, and enabling new and young farmers to enter into food production. Now, unfortunately, this is not at all the case today. Our public funds in the CAP doesn't provide public goods with large amounts of CAP money going to a small percentage of large farms who, frankly, are more or less not in need of it. Our current agriculture policy is promoting and also protecting a system detrimental to the goal of increasing the number of farmers and facilitating the increasingly pressing issue of generational renewal by favoring larger and larger farms. This doesn't stand in a time when we need more farmers, not less. And yes, we need to reduce the administrative burden for farmers, but that is not at all equivalent to decreasing environmental measures and standards. And it's definitely not helpful to change the rules time and time again. The administrative burden in many cases come from farmers needing to be in contact with multiple national agencies and reporting systems, which creates a jungle of documentation and controls, and we would like to see some sort of one-stop shop instead to help them. And finally, the EU should not put pressure, should, sorry, the EU should put pressure on member states to better coordinate their contacts and controls on farms. And we as lawmakers need to take responsibility for crafting scientifically and practically sound rules. Thank you very much.”
  Direct payments to farmers (pillar 1)
• “Thank you, Mr. President. Well, once again, we are here in September in Strasbourg to talk about the consequences of extreme climate events. One year ago, we were talking about these fires also everywhere in Europe because of heat. We talked about fires in Spain and Portugal. And I am sure that in a year's time, we'll still be speaking about these extreme climate events. At the same time, we have half of the hemicycle at the European Parliament constantly is against ambitious climate policies. These are forest fires exist and they are against any kind of forest surveillance of control of forests everywhere in Europe. We must have a tool which allows us to monitor forests and to mitigate the consequences of fires. It's a scandal. What is happening? It is a betrayal of the number of many victims this year, and also of future victims, because we could have avoided all these fires. Thank you.”
  Management of EU forests
• “There are a few questions that I think we need to discuss, and you need to be clear before coming to Baku. One is, of course, finance. Is Europe really prepared now to make concrete proposals on additional finance streams to feed into this Baku to Berlin roadmap, and which sources of funding are being explored in that case? I would also like to know from the Commission when will the Commission really put forward the promised roadmap to phase out the use of fossil fuel subsidies? This is should have been done decades ago, but it's still not done. And I'm sure also that there will be a lot of discussions regarding the article six credits and I'd like to remind you that our usual line that using article six to to meet the EU 2040 target would give some sort of perverse incentive for third countries to actually decrease their NDC ambitions so as to, to be able to to sell the additional article six credits. So there's definitely a lot of things to discuss, but I'm looking forward once again to cooperate with, uh, uh, Lydia Pereira and, and others in the room to make this as ambitious as possible. Thank you very much.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you very much, chair, and thanks, Commission, for this report. First of all, it's of course good to see that we are overall on a major scale, continue to reduce our emissions and that we are continuing, after all, towards our agreed emission reduction of 55% in 55% in 2030. But also, as you pointed out, 2024 is the warmest year up until now, globally. And the average of 2023, 2024 and 2025 will be almost exactly at 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, so we're already there. And that means, of course, that we need to to raise our ambitions. And we should have had already a much more ambitious goal for 2030 than the 55% that we agreed upon. But it's also deeply worrying to, to see this continued decrease carbon sink. And I'm really ashamed, I have to say, to see that my home country, Sweden, is currently furthest from meeting our obligations in the lulucf sector. For Sweden, there's a projected gap in 2030 of over 20 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalents for Sweden. So two questions on that subject. What is the Commission planning to do to rectify this specific situation and close the gap for the lulucf sector in the EU. Also, the Lulucf legislation requires the member states to submit corrective action plans within three months of it being clear that they're not on track. Has the Commission asked these member states to do so? And then, of course, in particular Sweden, in this case and to summarize this report once again give us a lot of reasons to, to, during this legislation period, higher our ambition and not what we're doing currently lower the ambitions. It's about Europe and it's also about the global leadership that we need to once again, really take full responsibility in. Thank you.”
  Climate efforts
• “(11:37:27 – 11:40:03): Least Sigrid who just spoke. I could echo all of your arguments once again, and I've said this before many times in this chamber: it cannot be stressed enough, farmers are at the forefront of battling climate change. Each year we are presented with new reports of record-breaking heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather that leads to forest fires, crop failure, emergency slaughter, and in the end closure of farms. So climate change is seriously threatening our food security, and as we probably all understand in this chamber, this will only get worse the next years and decades ahead of us. Then on top of climate change, we have an aging farmers workforce, high barriers to entry for young and new farmers, we have an input dependence at both the farm and union level, and we also have a declining biodiversity and degrading soil health across Europe. From my perspective, the next CAP first of all must secure ring-fenced funding for climate change adaptation, protection of our soils, and the reduction of input dependence. We shouldn't and cannot leave this for farmers to finance on their own. We hear that the policy should shift towards incentives, sure, but we must also finance this. Number two, we must ensure that the young and new farmers have a fair chance to start their businesses through a fair distribution of public funds and dedicated advisory service. This issue is structural and it must be addressed accordingly. And finally, and third, the EU's Common Agriculture Policy must remain common. Our food security will not benefit from a nationalization of agricultural policy. No farmer wants to produce on an EU market with twenty-seven different standards systems, which will distort the market. So I'm really looking forward to working with all of you and hope that we can constructively send a strong ENVI message to my other colleagues in the AGRI committee who may not be as constructive and ambitious as I hope that we will be together. Thank you very much.”
  Agricultural funding
• “Not madam, but it's okay for this time. No problem. Uh, thank you very much. Uh, Commission, uh, for this report. Not the least regarding all the details and data from the fire information system. Uh, we we've had a really, really disaster summer this year, but we all know that we will have many more serious seasons ahead of us. This summer of 2025 will probably be one of the 30 coldest during this century. Do not forget that we're heading for much worse scenarios in the near future. And yes, we do need prevention of course, and the by far most important is as ambitious climate action as possible. But of course, we also need a lot of climate adaptation, not the least in the Mediterranean region, but also, I would stress, in Sweden and in Finland, where the current huge monoculture plantations represent a big risk when it comes to forest fires. Could you elaborate a little bit when it comes to flexibility, resilience, diversity? And I'm not talking just about Biodiversity. How can we address this on a broader scale? And also, as my colleague from renew mentioned, the forest monitoring law, which was a complete disaster last week. Um, could you elaborate how important a really good, uh, ambitious forest monitoring law could be as a tool to prevent, uh, future fires and also addressing, especially the Patriots. Uh, of course, the majority of the fires are anthropogenic, but so is global warming and climate change, and thus the speed of how fast these fires are spreading. That is also anthropogenic. Thank you very much.”
  Management of EU forests
• “Thank you very much. Madam president, I'd like to start by underscoring the fact that now, for the first time ever, we have measured 430 ppm of carbon dioxide particles. That's above the 350 ppm limit. So we have to act now to avoid the most serious climate change. We know over the past 20 months, every single one of those apart from one has been above one and a half degrees above the pre-industrial global temperature average. We're finding ourselves in the middle of a very serious climate crisis. This is not the juncture to water down demands on the car industry. And of course, at the same time, you are talking about finding those parts of the the car industry that are actually doing well. You need to stand up for the climate goals. Listen to the climate alarms, not the most conservative parts of the car industry and policy and politics, who unfortunately seem to have put it into reverse when it comes to climate change.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• “Thank you very much, chair. And thank you very, very much, professor, for your presentation on the report. And I would also like to repeat what my colleagues from Renault said. It's so important with science, and I really wish that we had had a scientific board five years ago when we started those negotiations. And I totally agree that we need carbon removal in many different aspects, but I still would like to ask you regarding the more high technological solutions, do you see any sort of of limitations when it comes to the amount of carbon that we actually can remove in the more high technological solutions? And also, I would like you, if you're able to address and elaborate when it comes to the costs between the more natural carbon sinks and compared to the high technological solutions. And as you mentioned, we do know that by by rearranging the the US A policy concerning. Agricultural and forestry. We can create carbon sinks, natural carbon sinks. And those farmers and those foresters should be paid, of course. But we also know that the biggest carbon natural carbon sinks we do have is in the oceans. And whom should we then pay to if we are able to create and really make a benefit from the huge possibility and potential that we do have when it comes to the oceans? And I would also like to to finally ask you if you see if this is possible without a really, really strong nature restoration law, because I see myself a very strong connection between these two. Thank you very much.”
  Carbon capture storage and utilisation
• “Thank you very much. Madam president, the EU, unfortunately, is extremely dependent on the rest of the world for artificial fertilisers. When it comes to Sweden, we're dependent to the tune of 100%. But there are farmers in Europe who aren't suffering as much from these skyrocketing, skyrocketing prices of fertilisers that were already very expensive. So people who are using circular economies to help. Now, I understand, I think everybody here as well understands we can't overhaul agriculture from one day to the next to make it sustainable, but we should be able to take a proper step in that direction. It's not about money in the economy, it's about the the way we affect our environment and how we interact with the. With agriculture, this will strengthen farmers, not least because there'll be less vulnerable of the surrounding world and fossil fuels. Often the agriculture debates are crisis debates. Here we're talking about fertilizers. I'm going to stick my neck out and say, before the summer, we're going to be talking about extreme weather events and the consequences for food production in Europe.”
  Use of fertilisers
• “Thank you very much. President, Commissioner and council. The cop is almost upon us. And the door is closing to the opportunity of the commission showing some leadership the way we've done at previous cops. I'm not sure we're going to manage it this time. As Commissioner Huckstadt was just saying, we've tabled an ambitious text in the resolution. It points out how important it is for the EU to show leadership. We need to have ambitious climate legislation with an objective for 2040, but unfortunately, from now on we have to spend more and more on climate adaptation, and it's so important for us to take a leadership here, to take a responsibility for all those people who are being increasingly affected by climate change throughout the world. I don't think you have to. I have to remind you about all the negative news that we keep hearing, the negative impact of climate change. The coral reefs have passed the tipping point now, but I think we all need to remind ourselves of the positive news that we sometimes hear. Recent research. Shows that 89% of the population of the world wants to see a more ambitious climate policy. I hope we listen to them.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you very much. As many of my colleagues have pointed out already, it's less than five months ahead to the next cop in Brazil. And as we all know, we've had a few rather disappointing cops historically the last few years. And it's of course, really, really crucial that we as European Union show a clear leadership when it comes to to climate during and in front of this, uh, cop. Uh, we all know, uh, that for the more than two years now, on average, we've been on the wrong side of, of the 1.5 degrees. And we're in much, much more of a climate emergency now than we were, for example, in 2019 when we, after all, declared that we were in a climate emergency here in the European Parliament. This means that we need to focus much more on climate adaptation and also, of course, anything regarding climate justice, not the least when it comes to indigenous people. And for that reason, of course, it's very interesting that this cop will be in the middle of the Brazil rainforest. And I do hope that, uh, the government itself from Brazil will have a more ambitious than when I met them in Glasgow during that cop.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome, Madam Commissioner. I will continue in our mother tongue. Swedish. I'll try and be brief and concise. This is a complete disaster. The way you and the Commission have been dealing with the deforestation regulation. This is the second time in about the course of a year that this has been opened up and indeed postponed. You're creating chaos, uncertainty on the markets. We as a global actor, especially considering Cop 13, in Brazil, where we know that deforestation is going to be incredibly important topic. We are being considered as an unreliable partner. There are companies who a year ago were saying, we're ready. We can we can implement this. There are some who maybe a year ago couldn't do that, but there were some who could. And there are even more today who are prepared and they're being punished. Hence, I have three questions which are quite important for me. Big questions. First of all, has the Commission actually carried out an analysis of what the effect will be of these further changes? Environmental organisations that I lay great store by consider that the postponement this year has led to deforestation of 270,000 football pitches. Are we going to lose that amount again next year? Secondly, there were alternative ways of dealing with the fact that the IT system wasn't ready yet without opening up all the legislation. For example, we could have used implementing acts or could have dealt with the regulations in a different way from the commission. Why wasn't that entertained and hence reduced the uncertainty and chaos that we saw. Thirdly, the most central and most important point for me. Can you promise here and now that there won't be more proposals from you on further amendments and postponements on this law and a supplementary question linked to that, can you also promise that you're going to withdraw this proposal and come up with other solutions? If the council or some of my colleagues here in Parliament push for even more amendments than are already on the table. Thank you.”
  Trade impact on forests
• “Madam president. Commissioner. Drought, floods. There's no sector of Europe that is hit as hard by climate change as Europe's farmers. So it's clear that the Common Agricultural Policy must talk about the climate transition and adaptation to the climate change. Of course, it has to be about other things too. But the first place it has to be Europe's farmers. They are threatened with extinction. A huge proportion of disappeared over the last 15 years. So we need what we've done in Europe is we have built up a farmer system where it's the chemical companies and the food companies that have made money, not the farmers. We need to ensure that we have a fossil fuel free agricultural system, and those farmers that do make the transition should get extra resources. It's a question of the farmers future. It's a question of the climate. It's a question of biodiversity, but it's also an issue of security policy from the perspective of food security. We can make this transition and we can do it through a good cap in Europe.”
  Agriculture (green)
• “Thank you very much, president. Well, it's pretty much exactly 3:30. I'm the last pretty much the last speaker in the last debate this week in Strasbourg. And something as important as pollinators and bees. I mean, they are symptomatic of all the other ecosystem services that we need, produce our food to deal with the climate and to try and reduce the impact of climate change. So a lot of colleagues are probably already on their planes home Thursday Day afternoon. Well, for me and for many other green members of this House, really makes it totally clear that none of the other colleagues seem to care about this fundamental principle existential question, the climate, biodiversity, pollinators, ecosystem services. We have to protect them and maintain them so that we can have a functioning society in the future, too. **Katarina BARLEY @ChairThank you very much. The last speaker is Mr. Omega.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU
• “I'm from Greece. Thank you very much, chair. And thank you very much for your presence and your introduction once again, we see this pattern that there's very few MEPs here in the room. And all of us, although we belong to different political groups, we're very ambitious and there's no pressure at all from some of the really big political groups that would probably need to hear you and other experts much more than we have has to do. But apart from all the good questions you've already heard. Maybe I could ask you a bit, sort of behind the scenes on the UN level and maybe some sort of forecast ahead. I mean, we know from a global perspective that we do need a strong leadership from from the European Union, from the US and also from China, and now especially the United States are totally absent. Is there anyone else like like India or someone else that could replace them in creating this global leadership? And also, after all, at least here in parts of Europe, there's a lot of us trying to connect now the climate crisis with security policies. Maybe that would be a very, very strong reason for becoming fossil. Independent from fossil energy. Do you hear that sort of discussions within the UN framework? Is there some sort of change in the debate due to that? And also regarding what you mentioned very, very good. The need to back up science and the problem we have with fake news and alternative facts. Do you think that we should have some different approach when it comes to, to the forthcoming cops and the fact that we also have a strong acceleration right now when it comes to global warming itself. And once again, thank you very much.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you. Thank you very much, president. Thank you Commissioner. A lot has been said on Cop 30. It lacked ambition. There was no realistic timetable to transition away from fossil fuels. And I'm also very disappointed. Deeply disappointed. But we have to look towards the future. We have to build the future. We have to look towards the next climate summit. We did achieve a lot of important things. First of all, raising awareness on transition. We cannot stop this awareness in the Parliament. Apart from in the far right. We need conversion in daily life. We need massive climate investment, and we need to stop sabotaging climate rules and our shared ambition. It's disgraceful to whittle down our climate ambitions. We can offer better climate results and a better policy. Thank you very much. And hopefully at the next summit we'll have better results. Thank you. **Nicolae ȘTEFĂNUȚĂ @Co-Chair: Thank you. Thank you very much. Lee Anderson is next.”
  Climate efforts
• “And thank you very much, Madam State Secretary. Um, I would like to focus on three different topics and three questions, but I've noticed that you tried to avoid anything regarding forestry, so I skipped that part. But number two is sort of a repeat of my colleague Yunus that asked you about considering the fact that we at the Baltic Sea, we do have eight member states with coastlines, and we have the ninth one, Russia, with very, very old oil tankers. And there's a huge environmental threat to the Baltic Sea. You try to address that question by talking about the rivers, but I would like to hear what you your view on the Baltic Sea at large, not the least considering, as my Danish colleague also pointed out, that this is also regarding security issues. The third question and the third topic, probably the most important one. First of all, I really do regret the situation you've had in and you're having in Hungary with all the severe floodings. At the same time, we do know that we are now will continue global warming from 1.5 degrees to two degrees in roughly 15 or at the most 20 years. And we also know that during that time, these kinds of huge, devastating problems will increase. And the best thing to do is to raise the ambitions when it comes to mitigation. Do you, during these six months, have anything regarding raising the ambitions for the European Union at large, not the least considering that we have the Cop 29 meeting ahead of us. Thank you.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you, Madam President. Commissioner. Climate change adaptation and water resilience are points which are even more important now when we've seen that we're going beyond the 1.5 degree threshold in global warming. We need to take into account a number of points. We need to ensure that emissions are stopped at source. The problem is even worse when pollutants are already in our waterways. We also need to try and focus on most effective solutions available to us as restoration of nature and ecosystems. This is the best cost benefit solution that we also have the problem of PFAS. We need to ban them completely. It doesn't matter where they come from, whether they come from Frying pans or where they come from, pesticides which are used in in tomato plantations. All sources of PFAS need to be banned and it's not enough to just look at certain products.”
  PFAs
• “Thank you very much, chair. And you're doing a really great Tom. And thank you very much for the presentation. Of course, this is, as we all know, a really, really important and, uh, strategy on generational renewal has been long needed for a long while. But we also need now to put real pressure on the member states to do these detailed analyses of barriers, and also nationally and regionally adapted solutions. But at the same time, we all know the broad picture and the barriers the young farmers have been telling us all for for years that it is increasingly difficult to access land and land concentration, forcing ever higher capital requirements just to enter the sector. And this is something which the Cap has contributed to. Young farmers have also told us that the accelerating climate change, combined with a lack of political long term will to support finance and invest in resilient production methods and climate adaptation strategies such as organic farming. So I have a few questions, mainly to the commission and not the least that we know, as you pointed out, that the interest in an uptake of organic farming and sustainable farming methods is higher among young and new farmers. Why did the commission not include the uptake of organic farming as an explicit part of the strategy? And why is it not an explicit component of the starter pack for young farmers in the Cap proposal? And also, will the Commission ensure coherence between the generational renewal strategies and the Member States organic strategies? I would also like to ask a question concerning gender dimension in this strategy, as also the rapporteur Maria Welsch pointed out, this is very, very important issue. Does the Commission intend to encourage indicators and targets for the starter pack and strategies regarding reaching young women, and how will the Commission monitor and publicly report on whether generational renewal measure actually reached these young women farmers to an equal degree? We saw good examples from Spain and Poland, by the way, in the study. Thank you.”
  Gender roles, equality and inclusion
• “Thank you very much. And first of all, as a negotiator and shadow rapporteur for the forest monitoring law, I would like to really stress and highlight the fact that MEP Ben Huber, in his objection, states as a reason that the data the Commission assessment is based on is too old and of insufficient quality. Now, seriously, I assume that this then means that you will withdraw your rejection amendment on the forest monitoring law and change the stance to work constructively as a shadow for a strong forest monitoring framework to ensure that we in the future have the important forest data we need. I would say that it's really deeply hypocritical of members to criticize outdated data while simultaneously fighting tooth and nail against the forest monitoring law. Further, as many of my colleagues have already said, this EU deforestation regulation must be implemented swiftly. It's one of the most crucial tools of the Green Deal. Every month of delay means more forest lost, more carbon emitted and more rights are violated, and the attempt to further delay the implementation of the UDR by some members lead to unpredictability and undermines trust in the EU.”
  Management of EU forests
• “Thank you very much. Madam president, Commissioner Hoekstra. Excess weight and obesity. I grant you have something to do with treatment, care and medicine. And those who are affected need to be supported and helped. But at the same time, it's also a money spinning industry. You make billions trying to chase some kind of completely unachievable target or ideal. I take the example of Ozempic just by way of an illustration. I think that we as politicians need to look beyond that, need to address these issues properly, understand that public health is a matter of politics, and we need to do much more on prevention. And that is precisely what you said, Commissioner Hoekstra, in your introductory statement. You know, we can detect clear patterns in this area. Ill health is something that really affects those who are stressed out. Those who are poor. We know that fast food is not actually cheaper, but like so many other times in life, it's actually expensive to be poor in our societies. Now, some of us are currently working on the EU's agricultural policy for the next period. We're working on this and we need to make a connection. We need to invest in our farmers. We need to help them with the climate transition, you know, to bring the budgets down and expect farmers to deal with the climate crisis is not sustainable. What we need to ensure instead is that children get food that is well cooked and using local produce in their schools. Thank you.”
  EU measures on lifestyle-related behaviours (smoking, drinking, eating, etc.)
• “There are a few questions that I think we need to discuss, and you need to be clear before coming to Baku. One is, of course, finance. Is Europe really prepared now to make concrete proposals on additional finance streams to feed into this Baku to Berlin roadmap, and which sources of funding are being explored in that case? I would also like to know from the Commission when will the Commission really put forward the promised roadmap to phase out the use of fossil fuel subsidies? This is should have been done decades ago, but it's still not done. And I'm sure also that there will be a lot of discussions regarding the article six credits and I'd like to remind you that our usual line that using article six to to meet the EU 2040 target would give some sort of perverse incentive for third countries to actually decrease their NDC ambitions so as to, to be able to to sell the additional article six credits. So there's definitely a lot of things to discuss, but I'm looking forward once again to cooperate with, uh, uh, Lydia Pereira and, and others in the room to make this as ambitious as possible. Thank you very much.”
  Climate efforts
• “We have to be the example of the right thing to do, and not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because of our historical emissions. But how can we actually do something that we've actually run out of time to submit the NDC? Only a handful of countries have submitted NDCs. The EU has not done it. The EU countries have not done it. How can we expect action from other countries when we haven't done anything and we haven't got a target for 2040 yet? And we're talking about 90% and we're talking about neutrality by 2050. But if we stick to that, that means that global warming will continue. And round about 2050 we'll have reached three degrees. This document is going to be the most important policy document of the century, the one about 2014, 2015. We've got to reduce emissions all the more quickly, because the oceans and forests are not doing as much as we thought. So we come back to my question. How can we say that we're giving leadership at global level if we're not even submitting our own targets? Thank you.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you very much. As many of my colleagues have pointed out already, it's less than five months ahead to the next cop in Brazil. And as we all know, we've had a few rather disappointing cops historically the last few years. And it's of course, really, really crucial that we as European Union show a clear leadership when it comes to to climate during and in front of this, uh, cop. Uh, we all know, uh, that for the more than two years now, on average, we've been on the wrong side of, of the 1.5 degrees. And we're in much, much more of a climate emergency now than we were, for example, in 2019 when we, after all, declared that we were in a climate emergency here in the European Parliament. This means that we need to focus much more on climate adaptation and also, of course, anything regarding climate justice, not the least when it comes to indigenous people. And for that reason, of course, it's very interesting that this cop will be in the middle of the Brazil rainforest. And I do hope that, uh, the government itself from Brazil will have a more ambitious than when I met them in Glasgow during that cop.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you president. Thank you. Commissioner. I think that all of us know in the bottom of our hearts that we have to get away from fossil fuels. We? Now we're talking about changing the date for the ban on combustion engines. That's been populist. It's actually countered to those companies which are at the forefront of the transition. And it's also punishing the drivers who have to wait longer before they can get cheaper electric vehicles. And to be quite honest, how much do you think it'll cost for a family with children to fill up a car in 2035? How expensive do you think petrol will be by then, even without a green transition? It sounds like you you want to save industry, but what you're actually doing is putting out stumbling blocks for the industry and for companies that are trying to compete with companies from other parts of the world who already finished the transition.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• “Thank you very much, chair. Hopefully we all understand that a very ambitious target for 2040 is key for climate politics within the European Union and globally as well. But of course, this is not only about politics and arguments. It's actually about the future for all of us and for for the next coming generations as well. Um, I would say that I consider this a real scandal, that we have a rapporteur from the extreme right who seems not to be willing to read, after all the scientific reports that we do have in front of us when we should, uh, take these kind of agreements and decisions. But it's also hugely problematic that we do have member states like France that do, uh, a lot of things now to weakening the target and prolonging the process. Uh, we do need, as many of us have set an ambitious target for 2040 and for 2035, well ahead of the Cop 13in Brazil, and that is within 90 to 95%, and probably even above that, considering the fact that we already last year saw a year at 1.5 degrees. And we've also seen this summer some very, very alarming reports regarding the Gulf Stream and other things. And of course, all these, uh, reductions in emissions should be done here within the European Union, not elsewhere, but we can create a majority within this chamber if we want to, and create some sort of of hope for the future after all. Thank you.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you very much. Chair and Kalimera Maria, the Minister, first of all, thank you for being here this morning, Thursday morning for this exchange of views. I would say that you're in a somewhat unique position as you will be leading both the discussions on questions regarding agriculture and fisheries, as well as on climate and environment. Far, way, far too often these discussions happens in separate rooms with limited understanding of each other, especially, I would say, in the council. This is really been frustrating for me, being a member of both Envy and Agri, and I would really see much more cooperation between agri and envy. So first of all, I would like to ask you, how do you plan to ensure that discussions in agri fish are fully integrated with environmental and climate perspectives, and also with the debates in the Council and then also regarding the MFF discussions? Uh, they're set to gain momentum now really during your present NC and from our side of the Parliament, there are many that are really worried now about the lack of ring fencing of funds for the environment in the Commission's proposal. So is this something that also worries you, particularly in the new cap with the total scrapping of the live programme? Um, second, would you consider, uh, some sort of reintroducing of the live program and created some sort of dedicated nature fund? And finally, uh, what solutions will you work for to ensure that we have sufficient long term systematic funding of nature, biodiversity goals and climate resilience under the MFF and especially then, of course, within the Cap. Thank you very much once again.”
  Agricultural funding