Aurelijus VERYGA

Policy topics Aurelijus VERYGA is active on

What Aurelijus VERYGA has said (34)

• 2026-06-17 “Dear colleagues, in Soviet times it was quite common to send letters to Moscow. Today it seems that not much has changed in just a few months. Coders have sent across all information on how and where information in different Lithuanian institutions are stored. They've also stolen data from the servers of different political parties. So here we're talking about a darknet where massive amounts of information are available. This is information that was made public in 2024. As the government in Lithuania. Included some colleagues who are today in the European Parliament. And it's only today that questions are being asked what is being done to ensure security. Of course, this is a massive challenge for the institutions, for the public. There's a loss of trust in public institutions. This is a. Distrust is constantly dwindling. This is an opportunity for all of us, not just for those who want to make this a political issue for Europe.”
  Surveillance equipment & spyware
• 2026-06-17 “Dear colleagues, in Soviet times, it was quite common to send letters to Moscow. Today, it seems that not much has changed. In just a few months, coders have sent across all information on how and where information in, different Lithuanian institutions, are stored. They've also, stolen data from the servers of different political parties. So here, we're talking about a dark net where massive amounts of information are available. This is information that was made public in '20, '24 as the government in Lithuania included some colleagues who are today in the European Parliament. And it's only today that questions are being asked. What is being done to ensure security? Of course, this is a massive challenge for the institutions, for the public. There's a loss of trust in public institutions. This is a this trust is constantly dwindling. This is an opportunity for all of us, not just for those who want to make this a political issue.”
  Surveillance equipment & spyware
• 2025-04-23 “E-001610/2025 Answer given by Ms Roswall on behalf of the European Commission To reduce water pollution, the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive 1 requires the removal of micropollutants from urban wastewaters through quaternary treatment. In line with the Polluter-Pays Principle 2 enshrined in Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, the Directive provides for an extended producer responsibility system whereby the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors, which represent the main source of micropollutants in urban wastewater 3 , finance at least 80 % of the quaternary treatment costs. The Directive was adopted with a large majority in the European Parliament and the Council. The impact assessment accompanying the Commission’s proposal assessed the cost of such extended producer responsibility system and its impact 4 on the pharmaceutical sector at EU level. In addition, as announced in the Water Resilience Strategy of 4 June 2025 5 , in the context of the implementation of the extended producer responsibility system, the Commission will conduct an updated study of costs and its potential impacts on concerned sectors. In addition, the Commission will continue to support Member States in the pragmatic design of national systems with a view to avoiding unexpected or unintended consequences, in particular for the availability and affordability of medicines. 1 Directive (EU) 2024/3019 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2024 concerning urban wastewater treatment (recast), OJ L, 2024/3019, 12.12.2024. 2 https://environment.ec.europa.eu/economy-and-finance/ensuring-polluters-pay_en. 3 Impact assessment accompanying the proposal for a Directive concerning urban wastewater treatment (recast): https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/proposal-revised-urban-wastewater-treatment-directive_en. 4 Ibid. 5 https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/european-water-resilience-strategy_en.”
  Pharmaceuticals regulation in EU · Pharma companies manufacturing and production obligations
• 2025-03-05 “E-000917/2025 Answer given by Mr Hansen on behalf of the European Commission On 10 December 2024, the Commission presented a proposal to strengthen the position of farmers in the food supply chain 1 . This proposal does not prohibit sales below production costs. However, by improving farmers' bargaining position, including in the dairy sector, through measures such as cooperation, by making transaction conditions more transparent through mandatory written contracts containing essential elements (e.g. fixed prices or price formulas), and a mandatory review clause in favour of farmers, it contributes to the objective that farmers are less price takers, less likely to face systematic pressure to sell below their production costs and in a better position to negotiate. The proposal is currently discussed by the EU co-legislators in the legislative procedure. The impact of prohibiting sales below production costs or of qualifying this as unfair trading practice has to be carefully assessed, since such measures may in particular have impacts on competitiveness or market access for certain farmers or be difficult to implement. For this purpose, the Commission is evaluating 2 the impact of such measures on farmers’ remuneration and on the food supply chain in general, of existing national measures as well as current prohibitions of unfair trading practices 3 . As indicated in the Vision for Agriculture and Food 4 , the Commission will on the basis of these ongoing evaluations propose further initiatives, such as a revision of the Unfair Trading Practices Directive 5 or, in the context of the post-2027 common agricultural policy proposals, to address the principle that farmers should not be forced to systematically sell their products below production costs. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 6 is not relevant as it has a different scope. 1 COM/2024/577 final. 2 https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13826-Agricultural-food-supply-chaincombating-unfair-trading-practices_en 3 https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/common-agricultural-policy/agri-food-supply-chain/unfair-tradingpractices_en#keyrulesofthedirective 4 COM/2025/75 final. 5 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/633/oj/eng 6 https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/consumer-protection-law/unfair-commercial-practices-and-priceindication/unfair-commercial-practices-directive_en”
  EU policy on farmer–buyer relations in the agri-food supply chain
• 2025-02-10 “P-000606/2025 Answer given by Mr Várhelyi on behalf of the European Commission The main goal of the Critical Medicines Act will be to address supply chain vulnerabilities and reduce the EU’s dependencies in order to strengthen the supply of critical medicines, and also to improve the availability and accessibility of other medicinal products of common interest, which could include new and innovative medicines. The measures that will be proposed in the act will further address the specific concerns related to critical medicines. This will complement the proposed revision of the rules on pharmaceuticals under the EU Pharmaceutical Package. The Commission proposal is still being prepared, so it is too early to communicate on its exact scope and content.”
  Pharmaceuticals regulation in EU · EU intervention in private pricing of medicines · Joint EU procurement of medicines
• 2024-12-17 “E-002979/2024 Answer given by Mr Síkela on behalf of the European Commission The negotiations on an international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response are currently ongoing 1 . The objective of Article 13 2 of the draft Agreement is to establish a Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network (hereafter the GSCL Network) to enhance equitable, timely and affordable access to pandemic-related health products. Such products typically refer to health products that may be needed for prevention, preparedness and response to pandemic emergencies and may include medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, medical devices, personal protective equipment. The GSCL Network would be expected to be convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), in full consultation with the Parties to the agreement, WHO Member States not Parties to the agreement and in partnership with relevant stakeholders. The EU would have a role to play if it decides to become a Party to the agreement. Neither the EU nor the Commission would however be involved in the physical distribution of products under the GSCL Network. 1 https://inb.who.int/ 2 https://apps.who.int/gb/inb/pdf_files/inb12/A_inb12_3-en.pdf”
  Abortion policy
• 2024-12-17 “E-002978/2024 Answer given by Mr Várhelyi on behalf of the European Commission Article 55(2) of the International Health Regulations (2005) (hereafter the ‘IHR’) provides that the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) shall communicate the text of any proposed amendment to all States Parties at least 4 months before the World Health Assembly at which it is proposed for consideration. This applies to any proposed amendment submitted by a State Party or the WHO Director-General pursuant to Article 55(1) of the IHR. All proposals for amendments to the IHR, submitted by the IHR States Parties in September 2022, were circulated by the WHO Secretariat on 16 November 2022, that is 17 months before the 77 th World Health Assembly, which begun on 27 May 2024, when the amendments were proposed for consideration and adopted. In addition, the World Health Assembly established in May 2022 the Working Group on the IHR amendments (hereafter the ‘WGIHR’), which operated as a subdivision of the Assembly and was composed of all 196 States Parties to the IHR, and of the EU as a regional economic integration organisation participating to the negotiations of the IHR amendments. As such, the WHO Secretariat has complied with the technical requirements set out under Article 55(2) of the IHR by communicating not only the original proposals for amendments to the IHR, but also by communicating all draft changes to these original proposals developed by the WGIHR. These communications to all States Parties occurred at the conclusion of each WGHIR meeting.”
  EU competences on health
• 2024-12-17 “E-002977/2024 Answer given by Mr Várhelyi on behalf of the European Commission As outlined on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) webpage 1 , under the draft WHO pandemic agreement on prevention, preparedness, and response, decision-making during a pandemic remains with the future parties to that agreement. The current draft of the agreement 2 reaffirms ‘the principle of the sovereignty of States in addressing public health matters’. In addition, Article 24, paragraph 2 of the draft agreement clarifies that ‘Nothing in the WHO Pandemic Agreement shall be interpreted as providing the WHO Secretariat, including the WHO Director-General, any authority to direct, order, alter or otherwise prescribe the national and/or domestic laws, as appropriate, or policies of any Party, or to mandate or otherwise impose any requirements that Parties take specific actions, such as ban or accept travellers, impose vaccination mandates or therapeutic or diagnostic measures or implement lockdowns’. A guiding principle of the draft agreement is the full respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons. The aim of the agreement is to help prevent, be prepared for, and respond to future pandemic emergencies and hence help preserve people’s ability to travel, work, seek education, and lead a healthy life free of avoidable disease, as called for by the WHO Constitution. The agreement will not affect the responsibility of Member States for ‘the definition of their health policy and for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care’ as enshrined in Article 168(7) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 1 See reply to the question ‘How much authority could an accord have over signatory countries? Will it take sovereignty away from signatory countries?’ at https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-andanswers/item/pandemic-prevention--preparedness-and-response-accord 2 Available at https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA77/A77_10-en.pdf”
  EU competences on health
• “Mr. Minister. I will ask you the same questions that I put to your call that my colleague from Lithuania has just asked. First of all. I would like to point out that despite all the nice promises about the phasing out of fossil energy sources in the EU, still remains to a large extent dependent on the Russian gas. And until now, the perspectives of phasing it out completely are unclear. Whereas wind and solar energy are not a constant and they call for significant investments into infrastructure and into grids since it is necessary to reform to renovate the grid essentially. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't implement the necessary measures we must. Since until now the EU is paying up to €1 billion for imported fossil energy sources. Therefore, I would like to ask you about the perspectives for nuclear energy in this context. I also would like to say a few words about the security of infrastructure. Since the war in Ukraine reveals that energy infrastructure is one of the principal targets in this situation. Shouldn't we invest more into the security of this infrastructure? In your presentation, you also mentioned that we shouldn't be trying to address only the symptoms of the climate change. We should address the root causes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when it comes to the adaptation to climate change, we haven't been focusing so much on that aspect and a lot of human lives lost because of the climate change can be explained by the fact that the measures mitigation measures have been insufficient until now. Therefore, in our discussions of the about climate change, how much more should we be focusing on the measures to add to adapt ourselves to climate change? Thank you.”
  EU approach to energy security (home-made vs import sources)
• “(18:00:20 – 18:02:01): Thank you, and thank you, commissioner, for your time. I really welcome the commission's proposal to fund crisis response and health emergency preparedness and response. At the same time, I know we have different opinions regarding specific allocations of this fund. And as the European Commission's dedicated service for health preparedness, it is essential that UCPM provides adequate funding to enable DJ Herra to remain sufficiently resourced and play an active and adaptive role in responding to any health threats which the EU might face. As the recent outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola have shown, Hera needs to be agile enough to adapt at a moment's notice. Commissioner, how can the European Commission ensure that negotiations on the UCPM ensure sufficient funding for Hera and preparedness and response more generally? I mean, especially health fields. What actions does the European Commission foresee in ensuring that Hera remains ready to respond to constantly evolving threat landscape, and how will it ensure that these actions are adequately funded under the next MFF? Thank you very much.”
  EU competences on health (internal-competence axis, sharpened)
• “Thank you. Chairman. Commissioner. Colleagues, first of all, I'd like to express my happiness that we are moving towards the right direction. Now, speaking about the solidarity and accessibility to medicines in the changing geopolitical context, I would like to draw your attention to several things. First, this is our attention, our approach to pharmaceuticals producers. Now we must do everything so that such solutions as the ones related to the wastewater management directive would not become a burden for the health care system and would not fall on the shoulders of patients. Secondly, we have to understand that the different contexts of different member states could be essentially different. We have to speak about preparation for various kinds of threats, and for this we need resilient infrastructure and stocks. Thirdly, Europe will be strong insomuch as the weakest members of it are strong. We have to create a circumstances whereby science, innovations and product production would be accessible and developed in all member states. Thank you.”
  Government stockpiling of critical medicines
• “Thank you. Chair Minister. I'll speak Lithuanian. I'm really willing to wish you the best of success during your presidency. And my question relates to one of the priorities that you have mentioned. And quite a few colleagues of mine have talked about it. And the subject is water resilience. I do agree it's a very important area, and we need to do everything we can to make clean water affordable to all. But don't you think that in certain areas we have created certain paradox, and we are passing on a burden to very vulnerable groups of people. First of all, that is waste water directive in urban areas which will burden the final consumer. The final, um, the end user, that is um, those who are buying medicines, who need to use them. And basically this group of people is very vulnerable. That has already been suffering because pharmaceuticals will not assume the burden. They will include that burden into the price for any medicine. So don't you think it's a paradox to get back pharmaceutical companies to Europe, thus inciting them to produce medicines here in Europe. But on the other hand, we will pass on the financial burden on to the patients. So don't you think that the environment omnibus package should include also the issue of the revision of the waste water in urban areas? Uh directive to. Ensure that the necessary, uh, costs will not be passed on to the end users. Thank you.”
  Water pollution
• “No problem Mister Chair, thank you. And let me start from quoting you at the beginning: you've said that we have to be pragmatic, and I would add that we have to think horizontally and have in mind risks that are associated with ETS two and the goals associated with that. The first risk is the dependency on third countries' technologies and materials, and not just in the context of production service but also in the context of cybersecurity. We are hearing about that more and more because the technologies coming from third countries that are associated with energy production are sensitive and vulnerable in the sense of cybersecurity. That's one of the risks. Another risk is associated with the higher housing prices, and this is directly associated with the demography crisis that we are facing today. We are looking to all the possible ways, and I'm sure that this Parliament will look for solutions on what to do to solve the demographic winter in Europe. Higher housing prices is one of the problems. In the long term, energy-efficient houses with very modern heating systems could be cheaper, but in the very long term. In the short term, they are very expensive to build and to renovate in order to make them energy efficient. So my question would be: how is the Commission going to manage those risks? Thank you.”
  Energy performance of buildings
• “Thank you. Chairman. Commissioner, first of all, thank you very much for the right direction in reviewing the regulation and creating conditions for the increase of competition. I have a couple of questions. First, how the regulation of the EU medical devices creates the right balance between the safety of patients and the possibility to access the EU market for producers. And secondly, the question is related with the healthcare workers in the EU. So in this changing context, how could we ensure the training of the medical staff and preparedness for other type of threats which currently are overlooked in the conditions of peace? But we as Europe are preparing for new threats. Thank you.”
  Medical devices
• “Thank you. Chair. I'll speak Lithuanian. Thank you for the the documents that you presented. And I have a few questions. And some of those questions are technical. If you look at the figures in the documents then they are really shocking. But are they realistic? Because as you have mentioned, it's very important to see this report in in a way that would encourage our society to be more informed and to get more involved. And if we look at the figures, it says that 94% of the Lithuanian water condition is still unknown. And when I look at the information on the site of our environmental agency, I can see that there are data, there are data on that, but you don't take it into account. And then the num, the amount of good ecological condition water in Lithuania went down by 100%. That means that we no longer have good water in Lithuania. And you don't take into account the fact that the monitoring has been improved, that we have stronger standards now. Doesn't it compromise the report itself? How can you compare the situation in different countries if you use different parameters and different data? And I would like to ask you Lithuania. Often receives pollutants from Russia and Belarus. So could such countries as Lithuania. Hope that it will get additional investment to deal with that sort of. Problems with problems which arrive from outside the EU borders and which we have no control of. I would also like to draw your attention to one of the pollutants of about which nobody wants to talk. And we see that pollutant every day on our streets, tons of cigarette butts which get into our water. And those cigarette butts contain thousands of very dangerous chemicals. And I would like to ask you, do you intend to take any action to prevent pollution by that sort of pollutants, the cigarette, the pollutants that are present in cigarette butts. Thank you.”
  Water pollution
• “Thank you. Chair. Colleagues. The European Union is on the right way. We see that the import of national gas and oil from Russia is going down. However, to the ambitious target to stop all imports of natural fossil fuel from Russia is far from achieved. Is the amount of import from Russia now is insignificant. I think that a term like this cannot be adopted. Every cubic meter, every barrel of oil for which the EU is paying can help Russia to continue its war in Ukraine, to sustain its war machine, to produce thousands of drones and missiles that are sent to bombard Ukrainian people or to destroy the Ukrainian critical infrastructure. We all understand that we will have to help in reconstructing that infrastructure. Therefore, funding the destruction is just stupid. The history of Nord Stream shows how harmful and doomed was the policy of some political leaders. However, some people still do not understand it for granted and they have to understand the real risks in a different way.”
  EU approach to energy security (home-made vs import sources)
• “(11:51:33 – 11:53:41): Thank you very much. I would like to thank experts for their very good presentations. And as a colleague, Ruggiero mentioned, I'm one of the reporters on UCPM. And I have a question to you because we have some debate, let's say, with the commission, and some different points of view or disagreement, let's say. And my question would be, how would you see if the civil protection and health crisis management should be treated at the same level, both organizational and financial? And where we have a disagreement or debate with the commission is on specific allocation of the finances. Because as a corporatist, we have proposed to allocate specific percentages of the potential money allocated to UCPM, let's say, 60% to civil protection and 40% to health sector crisis management and preparedness. And the commission's point of view is that there should be no such proposal because we have to have maximum flexibility. So from your, as an expert's point of view, how would you see this situation? Because from my personal experience working as a minister of health in my own country, I know that health is always lacking resources, always lacking investments, and only when something happens, then we spend money on health. But what if we are serious about preparedness, how would you see the manual allocation to that, and how do you see the role of HERA in this? Thank you very much.”
  Covid-19 vaccines procurement
• “I think it's a very important that we finally have this discussion also on cardiovascular diseases, not just on cancer, and it means that we understand more and more that these diseases are, as colleagues have mentioned, the number one killer in in Europe. And by having this discussion, we have to keep in mind all three levels of of the control. So first of all, the primary prevention which is mainly associated with the with the lifestyles smoking, alcohol, unhealthy diet, low physical activity. And this is a very huge complex of of measures that has to be taken. But this is the cheapest and most powerful tool. So when we talk about cardiovascular disease prevention we have to keep that in mind. Then early detection and risk management. And by saying this it's it's not enough just to have a good instrumentally, uh, the technologies that might allow us to diagnose these diseases, but also to help patients that are in a high risk. The problem now is that we do understand what are the risk factors, but usually patients, they have several of them and they are usually referred to different specialists. And when we talk about now about, uh, shortages of the health workforce and low accessibility to the specialists, it might become a nightmare for every patient to get be, uh, referred to to the smoking cessation specialists, to, to other professionals. So one of the proposals could be to have a discussion about integrated approach, like lifestyle medicine specialists that would help the patient in one place. And finally, uh, we come to the treatment and, uh, now Parliament is dealing with the Critical Medicines Act. The pharma package. So I think it's a very, very good opportunity to have this in mind when we talk about cardiovascular disease prevention and control. Thank you.”
  EU measures on lifestyle-related behaviours (smoking, drinking, eating, etc.)
• “Thank you. I'll speak Lithuanian. Klaus has. A question about Cbam and the geopolitical situation. I think this is a timely proposal. We welcome it. But if we look at its aim, it is. It will not ensure real sustainability. Requirement for steel producers to reduce emissions might become a burden for them, which will force them to close down. And this might in turn reduce the competitiveness of the EU. The companies, factories, steel factories which will go bankrupt might be bought by third countries. We will in turn need to spend more money by looking for steel abroad. I think that it would be good if we postpone certain rules for 2 or 3 years, we should wait for European industry to get stronger. We also think that some energy intensive companies will lose their competitive position because of cbam taxes. They will not be able to compete because of higher costs. One of such areas is glass industry, which is laying off workers and closing enterprises. Small companies also might face financial and technological challenges as they will need to introduce new technological requirements. We might also see increased competition between various member states because some might start applying protectionist measures. Thank you.”
  Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
• “Thank you. Madam Chair. Minister. I would like to thank you for the presentation of Denmark's priorities. I have several questions. First of all, challenges just post in the agricultural sector. I would like to mention, uh, harsh requirements of the Green Deal. And unfortunately, direct payments to the farmers are no longer sufficient to cover, uh, the tasks and the new tasks under the Green Deal in countries which, uh, joined the EU recently, such as my country, Lithuania. Direct payments comprised only, uh, 50% of EU average. Therefore, given that aspect is, it is difficult for them to compete fairly. Another question. Uh, I know there is, uh, strive to simplify, uh, regulations in the agricultural sector. How do you expect to to strive for more simplification in order to achieve better Competitive, uh, competitiveness. Uh, another sector. Health. Health area. And agriculture. We know that the agricultural sector is not very attractive to young farmers, and we know that on average, farmers are 50 years old. You mentioned that one of Denmark's tasks during its presidency would be to seek improvement in this area. How are you planning specifically to achieve that goal? And my last question is linked to financing. Talking about the EU reactive, you have mentioned that it should be expected that the financing should increase up to by 15 to 25% to this area. And you also say that The quality rather than quantity matters. How do you expect to meet all the competitive goals in this area?”
  Direct payments to farmers (pillar 1)
• “And I can mention this urban wastewater directive, and there might be some other regulations that we can consider. So it is important that we see this document in the context of other regulations that were already accepted by by the Parliament and will come into force. And also it is important to balance other risks. There were some other colleagues mentioned the criteria for the procurement that would be based not just on the lowest price. I agree with that argument, but at the same time, we have to have a very serious discussion of how to balance risks that would come to to the health budgets of the member States and from my side as a as a member coming from a small member state in the European Union, I think one of the very important parts in this document is, is this joint procurement, um, uh, possibility, uh, in order to secure the smaller member states and their patients that nobody would left, nobody would be left behind and without treatment. So, uh, I'm a I'm an optimist. And, um, I see this document from the optimistic perspective, and, uh, I think we will. And good discussions, uh, in order to make this document the best possible. Thank you very much.”
  Covid-19 vaccines procurement
• “Commissioner. President. Wildlife is an important part of our ecosystem. Other parts won't be able to function without it. The EU understands this perfectly. It supports research. It is fighting wildlife trafficking. It seeks to protect species. The European Parliament's resolution also emphasizes the importance of one health, which. Unites the health of animals and people. And we know that people become ill when they violate natural laws. We have to understand that legal hunting is not just a wish to have trophies, but also a good regulatory measure. It can also contribute to traditions and local culture. We need to fight wildlife trafficking. We need to protect species and protect important ecosystems. Thank you very much.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU
• “Good morning. Colleagues. We all must acknowledge the increasing importance of water resilience, particularly in addressing poor water quality And the failure of wastewater treatment plants to meet current requirements. But I strongly oppose a binding legislative framework for unnecessary regulation burdens, EU overreach, and measures that increase costs for businesses and consumers. Water resilience should be addressed through practical, cost effective solutions rather than excessive regulation. It should be done by setting realistic time scales and avoiding overlapping legislation. While the European Green Deal and nature restoration objectives play a role in environmental policy, they cannot be regarded as the sole and most effective means to combat droughts and floods. Tackling these challenges requires a comprehensive strategy that includes modern water management infrastructure, technological innovation, adaptive agricultural practices, efficient resource allocation, Occasion respect for national competencies. Having in mind the question of EU competitiveness, we must avoid further blind implementation of the European Green Deal and its revision could be associated with this water strategy. Draghi and Nini reports. While it is important to encourage the circularity circularity in the water sector, concrete measures such as mandatory water reuse for irrigation purposes, water accounting as well as the management of water resources should remain the prerogative of member states.”
  Water pollution
• “Thank you. Dear colleagues, let me ask you a simple question. Where do healthy behavior begin? The answer is not in the hospitals or clinics. It begins in our homes, in our schools. Obesity is a growing public health concern linked to diseases such as cancer, type two diabetes, cardiovascular diseases beyond the human cost. It also places a growing burden on healthcare systems, economics and societies. Obesity rarely develops in isolation. It results from a complex mix of genetics, social conditions, unhealthy diets and low physical activity. Addressing it therefore requires systemic political level action. Research shows that the foundation of obesity often begins early in life. Preventing it requires addressing factors from childhood through adolescence. This is where we as policymakers play a crucial role. Kindergartens and schools must become environments that actively promote health and where healthy behavior is formed. We need not just provide healthy food there, but also teach how to cook, not just to build gymnasiums, but to form real culture of physical activity. Addressing obesity is not only a health priority, it is a social, economic and political responsibility. By acting early and decisively, we can prevent disease, reduce healthcare costs and improve the well-being of future generations. The evidence is clear. The tools exist. What is needed now? Commitment to action. Thank you.”
  EU measures on lifestyle-related behaviours (smoking, drinking, eating, etc.)
• “In order for the aggressor to be responsible for actions, Ukraine must win. Putin's plan to occupy Occupy Ukraine in ten days has turned into a war that continues for more than four years, where Russia holds no advantage and has long been unable to achieve any significant victories despite Russia's Relentless attempts to break the Ukrainian people and politicians by constantly attacking and killing civilians. Ukrainian fighters are becoming more and more effective in this context. The European Union must therefore remain consistent in its unwavering support for Ukraine. The adoption of the 90 billion support has been evenly eagerly awaited and really necessary. It is also very important to use a mechanism to legal mechanisms for the responsibility of those responsible, and we have to maintain the sanctions against Russia. We must remain consistent and seek to accelerate Ukraine's accession to the European Union. Slava Ukraini.”
  Russia-Ukraine conflict (10th term)
• “(11:09:55 – 11:12:35): Thank you very much, chair, and I would like to thank for the presentations. I have two questions. One is very much associated to the just recent report that we voted in the committee regarding health workforce. And to be prepared, we need experts and specialists. Especially when we speak about the pandemics, we need epidemiologists and infectologists. What happened during the COVID, what we found out that we really are lacking them. But that's a problem because the pandemics doesn't happen every day or every year. They come as waves. So it creates a natural problem that you cannot over prepare the specialists. But my question would be how to find the right balance, the healthy balance, how to keep the sufficient level of epidemiologists and infectologists, and how to create motivation for young people to choose those professions, how to keep the attractiveness of those professions for the situations that don't happen every day? That's the first question. And the second question is related to communication. During every crisis, communication is one of the key elements. Because if the communication fails, we can have a lot of problems that would not be associated directly with the health workforce or the facilities we need or medications. But the communication problems might create a crisis itself. So, I believe we did communicational mistakes during the COVID pandemic. But from your perspective, as experts, what do you see as the biggest communicational mistakes that we did and how we can learn from them? Now we have a lot of problems associated with trust, trust to vaccines, trust to the health workforce, trust to experts. So how can we change and learn from it? Thank you very much.”
  Vaccination
• “Thank you chair, and thanks to all presenters for brilliant presentations and enlightening the problematics associated with COPD and and allergic diseases. I have a few questions to you. First is associated with the pandemic we just passed through, and we all know that patients with the chronic diseases were the most affected. So maybe you have some recent data how the post Covid period can be associated with the diseases like allergic diseases or maybe COPD in the long term. We are talking about long Covid post Covid, so maybe there are some data already that we can see what is awaiting in the future that is associated with this virus. Then second question is, um, how do you see for the moment, for the moment, smoking cessation, um, as an issue, um, to help as a tool to help people to prevent those diseases or to help them to reduce the symptoms and, and, um, help with the treatment, because we all know that quitting smoking is essential if if the patients have COPD because otherwise the disease will progress. So how do you see now how in medical society we have it if it's widely available or not.”
  Smoking regulation
• “Thank you Commissioner. I will speak also Lithuanian. When it's very important that this water resilience strategy be pursued from a general security and safety point of view, because access to water is important not only to industry, but also to citizens and to farmers. And it's very important that we don't make any decisions that will lead to more dangers to public health. I would like to mention the wastewater directive. There are particular risks. Risks which are linked with pharmaceuticals, which lead to health risks. And that's a big danger. For in particular for the underprivileged. Would it not might not make sense to it. Take a one size fits all approach. And we also need to look at the financing of our measures.”
  Water pollution
• “Thank you, Madam president. Commissioner. The IRF has become a unique opportunity for recovery after the pandemic to rebuild economies. But there are many questions relating to the use of this money, in particular to reforms of member states and the indicators with regard to the evaluation. The evaluation is something which is subjective, and the evaluations seek to cover certain decisions taken by incompetent politicians, and then the terms of use are the time frames for use. There is always a risk because of geopolitical changes, inflation and other phenomena, and the risk is that the funds are not used in due time. Then the flexibility of these instruments of this facility in the current context. Today, for example, in the area of defense, one could review a certain things, revisit certain things, taking into account the geopolitical context. Thank you.”
  Conditions to access EU budget
• “Mr. president, Commissioner, these days we have to rethink the importance of Trans-European European transport infrastructure. Rethink having in mind Draghi and Niinisto reports. If we want to rebuild EU competitiveness, we must have transport arteries developed and functioning well for both civilian and military purposes. It is not acceptable from competitiveness and security point of view to operate on Russian. On Russian gauge. Gauge. Sorry. In the current geopolitical context, rail Baltic and via Baltic projects must be successfully finished. Lithuanian. Other frontline group countries already have disadvantage of being less attractive to investors because of possible aggression from countries like Russia. If to to if to that context we add bad road infrastructure, this problem becomes even bigger. Road infrastructure is also very important. If there would be a need for military defense, because military mobility limitations can become deadly bottleneck for supplying defense forces. Thank you.”
  EU transport infrastructure integration
• “Thank you. Mr. Chair, I speak. I will ask a question in Lithuanian. Well, first of all, I would like to thank the Ecdc for your work and for your cooperation during the pandemic. I was a health minister when the pandemic struck, and today I have a more broad question. When a disaster strikes, then perhaps every one of us should ask ourselves what we have done to prevent that crisis. And as you as you have correctly mentioned, Covid was a very important lesson for all of us. And you also talked about the resurgence of me of the measles. We can see that children are vaccinated less and less often. And during the pandemic. Some of us felt helpless and people were became rather angry because they didn't have enough information or sometimes just out of fear. The people were asking sometimes ridiculous questions, and those people quite often were marginalized, and they were just the pushed away into the social media bubbles. And today, to try and reach out to those people is nearly impossible. And it's. And the question that I have is probably very complicated, but it is important how we could, uh, what kind of lessons we could draw from that experience, how we could make sure that our society doesn't encourage fragmentation because that can only make problems worse. Thank you.”
  Vaccination
• “And what would you suggest then. And how do you see those speculations regarding so-called harm reduction strategies, especially when we talk about vaping and heating products? Because from my perspective, as a person who worked as, as a as a doctor with addicted people, uh, I know that switching from one addiction to another one it's not necessary helps, uh, from addiction point of view. But how do you see that from a biological point of view? Because there are a lot of speculations. The same with marijuana smoking. Sometimes it's even presented as as, um, let's say beneficial to health. To your health. And the last short question would be about, um, a different kind of, uh, tools to attract people to quit smoking. Previously, there were competitions like quitting smoke free class or other competitions for people to make quitting smoking more attractive, not just a medical issue, but also to make it more socially acceptable. So how do you see if they would still be attractive for society these days? Thank you very much.”
  EU measures on lifestyle-related behaviours (smoking, drinking, eating, etc.)
• “Thank you. Chair. I'll speak Lithuanian. I would like to thank the rapporteur for his opinion. First of all, I would like to say something and to encourage all of us to listen more to the proposals of the Community of persons with disabilities, because many of them have proposed documents reflecting their needs in solving their problems. I think that these people are best placed to make proposals because they are facing problems every day. We are somewhat privileged because we can move freely. We can hear, we can see things. And sometimes we might be missing some of those problems. I would like to say as well, that we see more and more of possibilities to restore various functions, such as hearing the vision movement. But those methods, those technologies are highly expensive. We are talking about the act of emergency medicines. Critical medicines. And we should think about the equal access of all patients to medicines, as well as to technological decisions and solutions. These two aspects are very important, but equally important is mental health and assistance in this field for the persons with disabilities and their family members. People who take care of persons with severe disabilities sometimes cannot access to mental health services. We should seek progress in this area. At the same time, we should seek to attract more specialists to this sector. The care sector. Finally, I would like to mention artificial intelligence, which might help us to provide more mobility possibilities for persons with disabilities. These technologies could help people to improve their mobility to access audio visual content. That these are my proposals. Thank you.”
  EU policy on disability inclusion & accessibility
• “Mr. President. Commissioner, if we want to get rid of combustion cars with good wills, good wishes and something put from from the top is not enough and the competitiveness of our car industry has suffered and electric cars are too expensive. They are way too expensive for people in regions in the countryside. The infrastructure is not developed well enough, so this transition has to be as natural as possible. These cars needs to be purchased where the infrastructure is in place, and they are used for short distances for driving within cities and towns. So we need to stick to the principle of technological neutrality, because when we shift from one fuel to the other technology, it can harm competitive competitiveness. We need to come up with realistic goals and targets. If we want to make sure that our industry is competitive enough.”
  Road transport environmental policy