Hermann TERTSCH

Policy topics Hermann TERTSCH is active on

What Hermann TERTSCH has said (22)

• 2026-03-12 “Answer given by Mr Šefčovič on behalf of the European Commission 11.5.2026 Written question While the Commission has not conducted a specific assessment on the risks of organised crime on EU-Mexico trade, it has taken measures to address threats related to organised crime, including illegal trafficking of drugs and other goods, as part of its broader strategy to enhance security. It has also strengthened cooperation on law enforcement and judicial matters with Mexico. The EU-Mexico Modernised Global Agreement [1] aims at providing a state-of-the-art legal framework for bilateral relations between the two parties. The modernised agreement includes a Protocol on the prevention of and fight against corruption in trade and investment which reaffirms the commitments under the United Nations Convention against Corruption and other relevant international agreements , including with regard to combatting bribery and money-laundering. Within the framework of EU-Mexico cooperation, the Commission recognises Mexico’s engagement in regional security programmes such as COPOLAD III [2] and EL PACCTO 2.0 [3] , as well as in platforms including the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Coordination and Cooperation Mechanism on Drugs, la Comunidad de Policías de América (AMERIPOL) [4] and the Latin American Committee on Internal Security CLASI [5] . This reflects a shared commitment between the EU and Mexico to strengthening the rule of law, justice and security, and to addressing transnational organised crime, illicit financial flows and drug-related challenges through evidence-based approaches and operational cooperation. [1] https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-register/detail?ref=COM(2025)809&lang=en. [2] https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/programming/programmes/copolad-iii_en. [3] https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/programming/programmes/el-paccto-20_en. [4] https://ameripol.org/. [5] https://elpaccto.eu/en/el-clasi-y-sus-implicaciones-a-nivel-politico-estrategico-y-operacional/.”
  EU policy on screening foreign investment in strategic sectors and critical infrastructure
• 2026-01-13 “E-000107/2026 Answer given by Executive Vice-President Mînzatu on behalf of the European Commission Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506 of 15 December 2022 1 sets out the measures for the protection of the EU budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary. The measures are proportionate and temporary, pending Hungary’s remedy of identified rule of law deficiencies, in particular the risks of conflicts of interests in the boards of so-called ‘public interest trusts’ 2 . The cooperation with legal person, entity or body established in Russia was restricted following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and it is prohibited to provide direct or indirect support, including financing and financial assistance or any other benefit, to the categories of entities listed in Article 5(l) paragraph 1 (a) and (b) of Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 3 . Researcher mobility for persons established in Russia under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions of Horizon Europe 4 has been suspended, as has academic staff mobility under Erasmus+. The only remaining form of participation of students from Russia falls under the exception set out in Article 5(l) paragraph 2(e) concerning mobility exchanges for individuals and people-to-people contacts. This very limited participation is kept under continuous review; it is the subject of a dedicated assessment to grant the exception and may be further restricted should the sanctions framework evolve. Partners from Southern Mediterranean countries continue to benefit from the already existing opportunities under the relevant actions of the Erasmus+ programme, funded through additional budget from the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument -Global Europe 5 . The Commission is committed to ensure that no one receives EU funding if involved in any activities incompatible with EU values. 1 OJ L, 2022/2506, 15.12.2022 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2022/2506). 2 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/ip_24_6465/IP_24_6465_EN.pdf. 3 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02014R0833-20251219. 4 https://rea.ec.europa.eu/funding-and-grants/horizon-europe-marie-sklodowska-curie-actions_en. 5 https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/new-%E2%80%98ndici-global-europe%E2%80%99-2021-2027_en.”
  Rule of law in Hungary · EU-Ukraine relations
• 2025-07-11 “E-002847/2025 Answer given by High Representative/Vice-President Kallas on behalf of the European Commission The Commission is aware of reports alleging potential support by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The Government of the Lao PDR has categorically denied any current or planned deployment of military personnel in support of Russia, reaffirming its declared policy of neutrality. This position was confirmed to the High Representative/Vice-President in person by the Lao PDR Minister of Foreign Affairs during a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on 11 July 2025. The EU will continue its development cooperation with Lao PDR. Should the EU obtain evidence of support as described by the Honourable Member, appropriate measures will be envisaged. EU development assistance to the Lao PDR relates to its least developed country (LDC) status and persistent challenges faced in education, food security, and sustainable agriculture. This assistance supports the most vulnerable communities and contributes to the broader goals of inclusive development. At the same time, support by the EU, Member States and other like-minded states offers the Lao PDR a tangible alternative to reliance on less principled partners. The Lao PDR successfully chaired the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2024, and has consistently supported closer EU-ASEAN relations, in the context of the EUASEAN Strategic Partnership.”
  EU relations with ASEAN · EU development aid (migration conditionality)
• “Thank you, Madam Chair. As someone who has over 30 years of experience in television and script writing and programs, I'm fully aware of the importance of editorial independence, creative freedom, and resilient media structures, both for the sake of culture and for democracy. Today, many journalists, producers and media people work under growing pressure from algorithms, disinformation Information and economic uncertainty. Undermining media trust is a political problem as much as technological and intrinsically cultural. It can threaten the very principles on which the European Union has been built. I have a few questions to our experts. How can we more efficiently support the independent media, the content creators, especially in smaller markets, so that they can withstand political and economic pressure? What role should platforms, platform regulation and algorithmic transparency play in providing access to trustworthy journalism and cultural content? And furthermore, how can we promote resilience and critical thinking among audiences themselves so that they can navigate the digital environment and recognize manipulated information. And I wonder whether to ask the question about how can we encourage and cultivate the ability in the audiences to tell bad from good from bad? Cultural and democratic resilience go hand in hand. And it is time for us to respond in the same way. Thank you.”
  EU support for traditional (non-digital) media
• “Good morning. Commissioner. Roxette will not be involved in the anti USA phobia in this House. We need a stable trade agreement with the United States. There is no real alternative to this transatlantic package. We can just fall into the arms of China as lots of people here want. That would just be suicide, unfortunately. What von der Leyen has set out as a deal with the US cannot be approved. 15% on tariffs, whereas it's zero for others, would just be another nail in the coffin for the primary sector. President Trump knows how to negotiate. He always has his country's interests in mind. This commission and president von der Leyen doesn't know how to negotiate, nor are they interested in the interests of European nations, as we always see. There's the ineptitude of our negotiators, and this is something which is paid for by European societies. As always happens, this has been seen once again. We need to change the program. We have. We need to get the bureaucrats out of their offices or we will put Um, and our societies, those who, um, uh, say they're against the US will vote in favor of this agreement so that they can say they can, uh, maintain their agreement to with von der Leyen. Yes. We want an agreement with the US as we want an agreement with Latin America as well. But the options being set out by the European Commission are not sufficient. Agreeing for this agreement is applauding the ineptitude of von der Leyen, and we will not be involved in that.”
  EU-US trade relations
• “Good afternoon. Isn't it great hearing socialists referring to Churchill? I tell you a thing or two about that? I don't know whether you're aware that Prime Minister Netanyahu has made a proposal that Donald Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize, he should have been given it in his first mandate with the Abraham Accords that transformed the Middle East even then, and already showed the way that we could truly achieve peace and stability in the Middle East. Of course, Trump wasn't given it for ideological reasons, for ideological reasons. They would have given it to Obama, who was a warmonger disguised in a cloak of progressiveness. And so now we should be talking about giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Israel, transforming the Middle East to resist evil, Resist the axis of evil and destroy it. There is no Hezbollah. Now there is no Assad now. There is a huge weakness now at the heart of the Iranian terrorist network around the world. Iran is still there, hasn't fallen yet, but the Middle East now has a hope of peace. As soon as they realize that Israel is here to stay, and we've taken a gigantic step in that direction. Israel is congratulating the West, and Israel is sacrificing the lives of its children, its soldiers, in a cruel war. And Israel does deserve that recognition.”
  Relations with Israel - Palestine
• “For funding one five seconds. What we heard about Hungary is a disinformation as well. Because what what they are, what they are saying is they are going against illegal financing of the financing of the of the NGOs. And we saw what is happening in this House and this House and in the European Union, with the with the NGOs that they are being financed for a very, very specific political a political goal.”
  Regulation of NGOs in Europe
• “Very briefly, because I don't think it's really. Given the findings here about interference. Now there were so there was so much Russian interference. Why were the elections not suspended? I don't think it's it's worth. Questioning these elections which Tisa won very fairly. People voted en masse. There was a change. And then. Mr. Orban recognized the defeat and congratulated the winner, which is something that we haven't seen elsewhere. And immediately there was going to be a transfer of powers He, because Mr. Major has said that he's going to use a constitutional change to sweep through the institutions and get rid of anybody that he doesn't like. So I think the only thing we can say is that what is happening in other countries, if the E is interference in countries like Hungary or Poland two years ago and the treatment that's been meted out And when Erasmus is approved for students in, in going to Hungary, all of this interference. Saying that the EU has a kind of post Brezhnev doctrine. Saying who their favorites are to change the results. I think all patriots need to recognize this. Anyone who wants to have a sovereign country, they need to realize that this is the case in Spain. See how the Spanish premier is accused of corruption. But he's being protected. But he's acting criminally towards Spanish people. But there are no consequences or warnings from here. But apparently it's us, the conservative governments, that want to get rid of you because you are our enemies. But I think that's why we've ended up with this here at this committee. Thank you.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “14:28 – 16:16:31): I'll be speaking Spanish. I think this is a report that will require a lot of work because it's full of misleading things such as the title. What do we mean by European sovereignty? When we defend ourselves, there's one thing to talk about democratic values but European sovereignty doesn't exist as we all know and still it's beginning to appear in titles of official documents of this Parliament, which I think is very strange. And then we've got this matter of gender ideology that we're trying to shoehorn into all our reports, every document produced here. It's really being forced in to cram ideology into all our working documents that we produce ceaselessly. I find it curious. And then we need to talk about some of the most dangerous cases we know given that we see anti-Trump phobia here in this Parliament and that's being fed by the Commission. It seems that once again we are seeing a great deal of sympathy growing for the People's Republic of China. We saw that a few years ago, the massive danger that that poses and still once again we find ourselves in a new Chinese spring even though they perpetrate some of the most significant repression in the world, not just transnationally but also in European Union territories. It is in fact China and the Chinese Communist authorities acting against their own citizens and many others that are very significant there.”
  Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU political integration
• “We thank you. The commissioner says that there are geostrategic risks and we've fallen off the horse for once. But some years ago, XI Jinping announced to the Communist Congress, Communist Party Congress, that China would become a global power at our cost in half the world. Very quick and coercive methods have been applied for some years now. Beijing has had a made in China strategy in place so that it wouldn't simply be a factory for richer countries, and it would become a systemic rival that it now is. The Chinese have been very successful in meeting their objectives, and that is largely thanks to the negligence and not just the negligence, but also the complicity of the West in half the world. The dependence on China is increasing. And in Europe, of course, it's particularly acute in Spain. Chinese infiltration is particularly scandalous. The current secretary of State telecommunications has links to Huawei, and half of the government has relations with people who have been, or continue to be professionally linked to this Chinese company. The vice president, for example, Huawei Spain up to 2023, the main opposition party, has not freed itself of this kind of infiltration. So both the main parties are stuck with this pro-Chinese lobby called Atento, and that reaches both of the parties who are affected by that. So many senior leadership positions in Spain and in Brussels are taking strategic Tegic decisions to the diktat of of Beijing. So before we deal with our trade policy vis a vis China, we need to answer that question.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “Yes. Thank you very much. I'll speak in Spanish. I believe that we're not talking about the impact of migration in Europe. We're talking about Russia's expansion or penetration across Africa. And here, there is 1 thing I'd like to know about. This Russian activity, which has been stepped up and expanded alongside China and Africa, I'm wondering if there's a link between the Russian activity and the mass mobilization of movements that are illegally trafficking third party nationals to Europe. Is Russian propaganda used with the incentives that some European governments are providing to ensure that European borders can be infringed upon. Many, many of the best people in Africa are risking their lives, risking human capital in Africa.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “In the previous parliament, the European Parliament drew attention to our vulnerability as developed over previous decades due to giving way to China. There was this radical change of direction and it gave rise to greater dependency and greater risks. Now, it appears that we are embarking on the same path and making the same mistake twice. I would hope that we could trust miss von der Leyen when she says she's going to take more of her distance now, but I'm not sure how much we can rely on that. Looking at what President Trump is doing. To then say, okay, let's replace the US with China dictatorship and draw attention to what's happening in Africa and so on. I think when we're dealing with the Chinese regime, we have to be extremely careful about not being bought by them. They've got a regime that just wants to impose itself. Look at how they've acted on other continents. This should be an alarm call for us when we see threats coming from Chinese diplomats to MEPs in their own house, because they don't like us defending human rights in China, Taiwan or anywhere else around the world, we want to have a sober, correct, reciprocal relationship with China. We've had enough of them just getting whatever they want from us, without us getting anything in return.”
  EU-China relations
• “Thank you, Commissioner McGrath. Uh, here in the Patriots. Uh, we like to stick to the facts, but. The facts are on our side. Mass migration has been a problem for crime and overrun services. That's a fact. It's a fact that Islam is a threat to our gender equality. It's a fact that the only sexes are male and female. But fact checkers say the opposite, because really, they are censors who are trying to enforce false progressivism. This is all alien. It's like the ministry of truth. We are announcing a huge expenditure for our independent journalists, but are they really independent? Um, in Brussels we see that Russian interference has to be combated, but so does the interference of the commission in Hungary. You want to see censorship? That is the democracy shield, and you are trying to create a shield against truth. You are its greatest enemy.”
  EU policy on Islam
• “Speaking Spanish. Good morning. Thank you very much, chairman. Well we disagree obviously we do not have a definitive text, but we think that these agreements mean that Spain will lose out on a huge opportunity to end a horrendous anomaly, an anomaly that fishers suffer. Also, the Spanish sovereignty as well. It's the last colony in Europe, and it's the only occupied territory that we have in Europe, apart from the Turkish area in Cyprus. This is a terrible anomaly and it's not in Schengen, but it's being treated as if it were in Schengen because the the money laundering that happens in that colony continues, and the necessary mechanisms have not been used to put pressure to stop the permanent expansion of the colony to the detriment of Spanish waters and Spanish territory, and the attacks on Spanish fishers, which is permanent. It's a and the black hole of money laundering as well. And it's an area of high crime. And that's what the colony is actually like. We thought we we thought that Brexit would be an opportunity. That was gifted almost to us to normalise the relations and end this colony. Now we've seen what our government has done with Spanish sovereignty. This is happening every day and this is another example of that. Thank you.”
  EU-UK relations
• “Thank you. There's a lot of fear surrounding loss of freedom, But there are many excuses pretexts here. And journalists are the adversaries of power journalists check up on those in power. If journalists agree with the powers that be, if journalists comply with the rules applied by the powers that be, if journalists are paid by those in power in return for obedience, then those journalists don't really deserve to be called journalists. But that's what we see today. Earlier we heard the experts referring to state funding. And basically state broadcasts are therefore official official publicity providers for the government, and they instead should be keeping the power in check and holding it to account. Thank you.”
  EU support for traditional (non-digital) media
• “Thank you. Um, the, um, advertising in our public market, particularly for the written media, has led to a situation to of total dependency for all media. Uh, a lot of media have, uh, interests behind them, which they're being financed through their advertising. We need to have transparency. Some countries, um, it's other countries that are paying for the media. So for example, um, in Poland it's Germany paying for the media. Um, sometimes it can be hostile to certain types of government. Um, which even if it's a legitimate democratic type of government in Poland or we see it in Hungary, um, in Spain at the moment, what we're seeing is that we've got to the point where the government never answers questions in Parliament, from the very few journalists who still ask probing questions to the government. And these are the important questions. They only answer questions from journalists who support the government. This isn't journalism. It's something else quite different.”
  EU support for traditional (non-digital) media
• “Thank you. I'll speak Spanish. Thank you Commissioner for joining us this evening but you have not answered any of the questions put to you. You had a wonderful opportunity to talk about interference in the Romanian elections and a clear design to overturn the democratic will of the people there. Now what you're presenting here is a Ministry of Truth that we have to finance. You do not realize how unrealistic this is. Media and press will not be independent or sovereign. You are funding NGOs, auditors. What you are doing is grotesque. The European Commission believes that in this way they can control the European Union and push their ideological agenda. I'm afraid of the Russians and the Chinese. I'm afraid of misinformation but I'm equally afraid of disinformation pushed by the European Commission. Thank you.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Good morning. I'm going to speak in Spanish as well. I do think that the focus of this meeting is not surprising, but it is typical of what we are seeing in the Democracy Shield. It serves less to defend democracy than to defend a series of groups and their ideology, which is under threat. And they're very scared of that. Hearing that there's been an improvement in Brazil when under Bolsonaro there was not a single political prisoner, and now there are thousands, and they've had to have an amnesty because of the thousands of unfairly imprisoned people in absolutely tragic conditions. The fact that you've said that Poland has improved when there the abuse is committed by the government to which has been propped up by this Parliament, whereas actually all of the rules of the rule of law are being violated many times more than the previous government, and they're removing all the restrictions, or you've removed all the restrictions that he had placed on the previous government in order to intervene in their democracy. This is obscene. Not talking about the worsening and the degradation in Spain of the state of democracy there. The fact that we have a government and a prime minister who is surrounded by criminals, uh, corruption, links to Venezuela, business links. When we have the European Union financing Cuba, which is the country that infected the whole of South America, including In Brazil and Lula supporting the oligarchs. The. Venezuela that exports cocaine to the US and to Europe. Are these the signs of positive developments? I think it really shows what the real position is of this democracy shield. You're not defending democracy. You're defending the progressive values that you believe are democracy. I think we're on the wrong path. If you are identifying Lula, for example, or Maduro and identifying them with democracy. Thank you.”
  EU relations with left-wing Latin America
• “Thank you very much. And thank you to all the experts for their very interesting points. Thank you also to Mr. Zovko for what she said. I think it's important that we have a clear vision of what we're trying to achieve with America. We need to try to tease out the ways in which we can improve relations with America and the current administration. That would actually be useful. And if we had a clear counterpart, somebody with whom we could engage in the administration, who was prepared to engage in dialogue, and if we were prepared to do the same, rather than get bogged down in hostilities, that would potentially be much more productive for both sides. Sometimes there's far too much focus by the European Commission on the European approach to things, and they are not. They are too narrow minded. There are those who have said pretty much that here this morning, and an alliance against Trump is really not helpful. You can see that Trump has reached an agreement with the Japanese, with the UK, with China, and therefore we are lagging behind. We are effectively isolated, and we have arguably brought this upon ourselves because of the narrative that we've been peddling over the last ten years about Trump's irrelevance and inappropriate way of running the presidency and the members of his cabinet and so forth, I think.”
  Asia-Pacific
• “Speak in Spanish. Thank you. Chair. We have a report in front of us, and I'd like to thank the rapporteur for his efforts on this, because he's done a huge amount of work. But there are a number of issues which won't achieve any type of consensus. I think there's a deliberate attempt to create resistance not due to external interference. We of course agree on that, not interferences from a clear threat such as Russia or China or Iran or Islamism. The Muslim Brotherhood are very much present, present here in Europe, and are being financed directly and indirectly by various bodies and public authorities. And this is concerning for all of us. So all of this, uh, series of non-governmental organizations, um, it looks like we're being, uh, told we have to encourage them. And, uh, Madame von der Leyen said herself that, uh, funding independent journalism is an oxymoron. We can't fund independent journalism because it's not independent when it's journalism that just, uh, parrots European Union propaganda and the majority position in this Parliament and the Commission. So what we're seeing here is that they're using the pretext of interference to try to protect themselves. And this is a problem.”
  Regulation of NGOs in Europe
• “Thank you. I'm going to speak in Spanish. Well, thank you very much. On Thursday, I went to the Mexican senate's sitting. They were adopting a law on sovereignty as it was dubbed for Mexican sovereignty. The law stated that any elections for any person in power, any role could be annulled if there were proof of foreign links. And so for Morena and Scheinbaum's government, it's quite clear that any pretext of links with any country, any type of relationship, regardless of the type, could be used as a pretext for annulling elections, and that's those that are not convenient for miss Scheinbaum and her regime. Now, obviously, we saw the direct tie between this and the Romanian case. And so I wanted to ask you, right now, why do we need another group like yours at this time for these 20 27 elections? Why are the 20 27 elections ones in which you need to set up additional groups that go beyond the existing administrative instruments that the EU itself is setting up, the ones that my colleague referred to. So why do we need these additional instruments to put pressure or influence or bring influence to bear on national elections in various countries? You probably fear that there may be major changes in these countries, and your positions would be at significant risk. Thank you.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “14:28 – 16:16:31): I'll be speaking Spanish. I think this is a report that will require a lot of work because it's full of misleading things such as the title. What do we mean by European sovereignty? When we defend ourselves, there's one thing to talk about democratic values but European sovereignty doesn't exist as we all know and still it's beginning to appear in titles of official documents of this Parliament, which I think is very strange. And then we've got this matter of gender ideology that we're trying to shoehorn into all our reports, every document produced here. It's really being forced in to cram ideology into all our working documents that we produce ceaselessly. I find it curious. And then we need to talk about some of the most dangerous cases we know given that we see anti-Trump phobia here in this Parliament and that's being fed by the Commission. It seems that once again we are seeing a great deal of sympathy growing for the People's Republic of China. We saw that a few years ago, the massive danger that that poses and still once again we find ourselves in a new Chinese spring even though they perpetrate some of the most significant repression in the world, not just transnationally but also in European Union territories. It is in fact China and the Chinese Communist authorities acting against their own citizens and many others that are very significant there.”
  EU-China relations