Helmut BRANDSTÄTTER

Policy topics Helmut BRANDSTÄTTER is active on

What Helmut BRANDSTÄTTER has said (52)

• 2026-06-17 “Thank you. President. Commissioner. We said that we shouldn't overreact over exaggerate. That's what I saw on social media today. But yes, here we have the proof is we have hybrid attacks. We have 600 000 individuals who have their data stolen from the central registry. And this can and affect other countries as well. It's the Russian. And what's behind Russia. What is Putin? He wants to disturb an unsettled Europe. Now we we need to be technologically independent. And that's the response. We need to be much stronger. And we spoke about this yesterday. Obviously, we need to increase our security. Yes, Commissioner. You're correct. Euronews and Europol need to work together and also need to work with national institutions as well. However, there's another important point. When we need to speak about disinformation. Disinformation is also part of this hybrid threat. We have sabotage. We have cybersecurity attacks, and we need to build this resilience centre together. And this will create we need this resilience centre and allow national governments to, to work together. And, and we need to protect Europe with this resilience centre. We need to be clear as well. Many people don't understand how diverse the attacks can be. It's not just kinetic military attacks in Ukraine. It's also hybrid attacks against all of us. And the effects, all of us. Is Europe.”
  Surveillance equipment & spyware
• 2026-06-17 “Thank you, president, commission. We said that we shouldn't overreact, over exaggerate. That's what I saw in social media today. But, yes, here we have. The proof is we have a hybrid attacks. We have 600,000 individuals who have the data, stolen from the central registry, and this this can affect other countries as well. What's is is the Russian and what's behind Russia? What's Putin? He wants to disturb, and unsettle Europe. Now we we need to be technologically, independent, and that's the response. We need to be much stronger. And we spoke about this yesterday. Obviously, we need to increase our security. Yes, commissioner. You're correct. Euronews and Europo need to, work together. They also need to work with, national institutions as well. However, there's an another important point when we need to speak about disinformation. Disinformation is also part of this, hybrid threat. We have sabotage. We have cyber security attacks, and we need to build this resilience center together. And this will create we need this resilience center and our national, governments to to work together, and and we need, to, protect here with this really center. We need to be clear as well. Many people don't understand how diverse the attacks can be. It's not just, kinetic military attacks in Ukraine. It's also hybrid attacks against all of us, and and the attack affects all of us is Europe.”
  Surveillance equipment & spyware
• 2026-06-16 “Thank you, president, commissioner, colleagues. Technology is power. Technology is about our economy and society, and it's important for our security. We know Donald Trump wants to dominate us. We don't want us to have power. He wants to have power over us. That's why we must be attentive, and we need to step things up. You've said important things, but when will we have the capital market? Only, only a European capital market that will allow us to build up big companies. Go to The US. There are researchers and companies. They don't want to live in that country, which is getting worse. They want to come to Europe. There are strange people in politics who say a small country, Austria must be sovereign. That's absurd. We, as the European Union, can be sovereign. I mean, let's do act for that. We're doing that for our citizens against external powers for our for our Europe. Thank you.”
  EU industrial funding (mechanism level: EU-pooled vs nationally-financed)
• 2026-06-16 “Thank you, Mr. Brunstetter. Commissioner. Colleagues. Technology is power. Technology is about our economy and society, and it's important for our security. We know Donald Trump wants to dominate us. We don't want us to have power. He wants to have power over us. That's why we must be attentive and we need to step things up. You've said important things, but when will we have the capital market? Only a only a European capital market will allow us to build up. Big companies go to the US. There are researchers and companies. They don't want to live in that country, which is getting worse. They want to come to Europe. There are strange people in politics who say a small country, Austria must be sovereign. That's absurd. We as the European Union can be sovereign and we need to act for that. We're doing that for our citizens, against external powers, for for our Europe. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sinkevicius.”
  EU industrial funding (mechanism level: EU-pooled vs nationally-financed)
• 2026-06-15 “Yes. Thank you very much, chairman. Mister Borgia Butte, I have to tell you, when your daughter was in the European Parliament, it was a really moving moment to talk to a young woman who tells us that her father is in prison for five years. Yeah. That's something I will not forget. And I hope she's well, and I hope, your family as well. It was, as I said, really moving moment. But that brings me to my first question. In when I was in before a year, I was in the Austrian parliament, and, we did solidarity action for political prisoners, in order to take sponsorships for political prisoners. Do you when you are in prison, do you hear about that? Is that something where you know that there are people outside, they care for us, or are the the prison doors so close that you wouldn't know that? That's my first question. And the second thing is we had, there was a Belarus meeting in London just two weeks ago with, missus Dikenovskaya. And, whenever I meet her and the people around her, they there is a certain optimism. They say that there are so many people, more and more people in Belarus who will stand up again, who will not of course, they do not support the the the dictatorship, the totalitarian regime, but they are optimistic. You said you cannot answer those questions, but I still want to ask you, can you share this optimism? And my last point, I met Mr. Lukashenko once. It was in '19, in 2019 in Vienna. I think it was his last visit to a to a free country. He was officially invited. And it was very interesting because he said it was before the 2020 elections, obviously. And he said, you know, Belarus wants to be in the middle of Europe and, and, and Russia. They they want to deal with both sides, and they don't want to subjugate under Russia, so they want to be a free country and so on. And okay. Is there any chance of and we know what happened, ever since. Is there any chance that mister Lukashenko will be a little bit more distance to Putin, or is this just an illusion? Thank you very much.”
  EU-Belarus relations
• 2025-11-07 “P-004404/2025 Answer given by Executive Vice-President Séjourné on behalf of the European Commission Competition law remains an effective tool to fight unjustified territorial supply constraints if these are imposed unilaterally by companies that are in a dominant market position or if they result from anticompetitive agreements between companies. The Commission takes forceful action to sanction such practices 1 . However, many of such practices happen outside these scenarios. In the Single Market Strategy 2 , the Commission announced that it would develop tools to act against unjustified territorial supply constraints covering situations that fall outside the scope of competition law by end of 2026. This responds to a strong call from a large number of Member States to address the issue at EU level. In the current cost-of-living crisis, it is of utmost importance that consumers benefit from the Single Market. The Commission is carrying out an impact assessment and broad consultations to determine the most suitable solutions to tackle the issue. It will consider both legislative and nonlegislative options. The outcome of the process is expected by the end of next year. 1 In the AB InBev and Mondelēz investigations the Commission fined these undertakings, respectively, EUR 200 million and EUR 337.5 million for cross-border trade restrictions that segment the internal market. The Commission also carried out in March 2025 unannounced antitrust inspections in the non-alcoholic drinks sector and sent out a formal request for information in the personal care sector for possible restrictions on the trade of goods in the internal market and market segmentation covered by competition rules. 2 https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/document/download/d92c78d0-7d47-4a16-b53f1cead54bcb49_en?filename=Communication%20-%20Single%20Market%20Strategy.pdf.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation · EU Competition policy
• “Natalie, I'm sorry to be late, but been in the Foreign committee and rapporteur for Serbia. And we discussed Serbia and by the way, has a lot to do with Democracy Shield, because as we've seen in our last visit to Serbia. The situation there and the Russian influence, of course, is very strong. And we heard in this here as well. First of all, I want to thank Tomas Dubay. Thank you very much for the report and thank you, all the others. There are so many amendments. So we'll have a lot of discussion. But I think it's really it's really so important because we see this danger for our democracy in so many ways. And so we really have to do everything to, uh, yeah, to keep that what we always say. I'm the luckiest generation that ever grew up in the west of Europe because we always had freedom and democracy, but now it's not a given anymore. And I think this is really what we have to do. I think there are many different points. I just want to mention we just learned it from Slovenia and other countries. Is interference in elections is a very important point.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “I think Parliament should have a decisive role in this, in this resilience centre, because we are the elected people of the of the Europeans. And so I think it's really necessary that we have a role in that, and we control what they are doing, and that will be not the end of the censorship, blah, blah. They will continue with the censorship, blah, blah. That doesn't matter. Uh, but we have we can explain easily that it's elected people who control what they are doing. And, uh, my next question, of course, is, uh, how this coordination with you named Edmo. I think that's very important how that will work. And then, of course, also with the member states. Um, and I think the member states also have to play a role. And today and yesterday we heard from Armenia how intensively the Russians are doing their work there. And my last word, it's not only about disinformation, it's also about sabotage. It's about the security of people in Europe. And I care for the security of people of Europe. Even if you don't. Thank you.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Um, if that's the case that algorithms decide what I will get, I think we really have to do something about the algorithm. But please explain to me what we can do. How do you see we can we should probably improve the DSA. And what would be the idea? And then I want to mention the question of, um, uh, of AI, uh, because, you know, when I saw Donald Trump dressed as the Pope, I was sure that, you know, that some some crazy guy did it, you know. Oh, then I found out it was. It was Trump. Okay. Uh, then, uh, then I saw Trump. There's a picture. I still I'm still not sure if it's from him. It's a picture that's written on it. Uh. Trump will no. Trump will save the world because God God wants it. Probably it's also from him. So I think we really need something to find out as a normal consumer if that is AI or not, because somebody mentioned it already. If I buy milk, I want to know if it's milk, if if it's poison, I want to know if it's poison. We write it on the, on the cigarettes that it's that it's dangerous. So I think we have to tell people. Watch out. This is AI. This is fake. And how do we do that?”
  Transparency and oversight of AI-generated content
• “Yeah, it's very simple to answer. We know that the Russians spent three fifty million dollars last year in Moldova to buy people, to buy votes and so on and so forth. And we also know, and that was with the group of Endriza Marta, thank you very much, in Moldova during the last elections. We know how they put those people in Transnistria and buses, give them money to vote what they want, the Russians want somewhere in Moldova. So the way how the Russians really want to ruin the young Moldovian democracy. We have to stand on the side of the young Moldovan democracy against the terrible influence of the Russian war criminal. Thank you.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “The second, of course, is freedom of speech and freedom of media. It has to be paramount. It's really in the center. And then of course, this resilience center. And for me, this is a very important point because the resilience center and I see and hear it already, um, will be marked by some people as, okay, they want to do, um, the end of free speech or something like that. No, no, no, it's the contrary. Um, the resilience center must be in the center of our democracy. It has to be very open. And that's the reason why I always say we really should have a control of this resilience center by voting members of the parliament. I think this is our job to watch what they are doing. And I think we have to find the construction that this resilience center, um, is in our in our center also. And we can control what the, what they are doing. So these are some of the points which are very important for me. And as I said, we will have the discussion about the amendments. And again, thank you very much for everybody for cooperating.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Thank you. Chair. Thank you. Thomas. Toby, a very good report. And I'm really happy how we work together here. And there are very important points and I'm looking forward to continue working with you. Thank you very much. It's well structured and I think all the important points are already talked about. And there are a lot of details we still have to work on. You mentioned repeatedly the working document, the DSA. And of course we hear all the time it would limit the freedom of speech. On the contrary, I'm convinced we need certain regulations in order That there is. We can keep freedom of speech in Europe, and that has very much to do with the platforms. And there are a few I see a few journalists in here, former journalists, and we all know we had responsibility. The journalist has responsibility. As an editor in chief, I had responsibility on a platform. Nobody has responsibility and that is harmful and we have to discuss about how that works. The same goes for influencing elections. We were talking about. I think in all our countries we have certain laws. How much money you can, you can spend for elections and you have to do it transparent in transparency. If you have someone who pays for TikTok and they influence elections, it's not transparent anymore.”
  Digital platforms liability for harmful and illegal content
• “Um, so if I understood it right, uh, this dark marketplace that started in 2013. So 12 years ago, and now we are sitting here and we hear that it's very difficult to do against this. Um. Uh, that's my first question. When when did the Commission and also Europol start, really to discover that this is a threat to the security of so many people here? Um, and then you talked that, of course, can the criminals can be in different places. But what are you doing to find those criminals? Uh, what are you doing with the internet providers? Because obviously, without them, it didn't work. Uh, so do they comply? Do they work together with you or not? And where where do you see political background in, in those, um, in those activities? Thank you very much.”
  EU law enforcement cooperation in criminal matters
• “Mr. president, Russia is a terrorist state. A list of abhorrent crimes are endless. Russia's deportation and forced transfer of 20,000 Ukrainian children amount to crimes against humanity. These children stolen, renamed, forced into Russian families, are victims of a systematic campaign, and the vice president of the Duma proudly showed himself with a baby, which he adopted, which he had stolen and now is proud. He has a new baby. And across Africa and other regions, vulnerable men are being lured with false promises of work or education, only to find themselves forced onto the front lines of a brutal war. One video uploaded by Russians themselves shows an African mercenary, Francis, with a landmine attached to his body, a horrifying illustration of how the Kremlin dehumanizes its recruits. Russia's actions are shameful stain that will never wash away. We stand on the right side. We want to help Ukraine. We want to help those poor, those poor people. And I'm very sad that in this House there are members of this Parliament who still are on the side of the war criminal, Putin. Thank you.”
  EU-Russia relations (from March 2022)
• “Yeah. Thanks very much. Natalie, I have to stop crying now. They are so poor and never allowed to speak anywhere. That's really very bad. It's a little bit strange for me to talk to Alfred in English, but I do it. Hello. Great to have you here. He does great work. He was a well-known ambassador in Austria. And I'm really happy to see you here. Um, first of all, it's not the majority here, I have to tell you that calls Ursula von der Leyen a dictator. Um, that's probably part of our problem. Um, is the way how we use words. And if you call the elected president of the commission, elected president of the commission, she's elected like Mister, like Mister Magyar is elected like Mr. Orban was elected by the parliament. Okay, so she's elected. There are many things I'm. I don't like she's doing, but she has a majority in this Parliament. That's a fact. And to call her a dictator and at the same time support a terrorist like Putin. That's that's that's that's an interesting story. But that's what I want to talk to with Elfrid. You know this is this is democracy shield. And what we are talking here for one and a half years already is about this huge disinformation.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Thank you very much. Dear Filippo Obagi, first of all, thank you very much for your work. It's really very important what we could read from you in the last years in the Daily Beast and other magazines, the films you produced, and it's very important, all your information. And thank you for being with us. I have a few, questions. You talked about those governments who work together with, with Russia. How about Europe? Do you see European governments well, which which governments in Africa we would have a chance to talk to to get influence there, and to explain, also the the the public here in Europe, what's happening there? Second about you talked about the the the false accounts. How can we find them, and how can we find out whom they are supporting from where this is going out and how they do work? Because I think it's really important to explain it also to our public what's happening there. Talking about migration, we heard an officer from from Poland here in this committee who explained how they bring directly African refugees to the Belarus Polish border to to try to bring them over to Poland. Can you tell us more about these organizations who do that? And would you would you think that the EU I mean, we have ambassadors there. But does the EU need kind of a democracy shield center in Africa to do not to not to do, disinformation, but to explain to the African people what's happening there and that we are not their enemies and that it's not fair what's happening there and also to explain to them what the Russians do to them because they also take, Africans bring them, to Russia, send them to the boy in Ukraine to die. So I think it would be also our duty to explain to the, African public what's really happening with this Russian influence. Thank you.”
  EU policy on African region · Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Russia is a terrorist state. Russia. Bombs rained down on Ukrainian hospitals, schools and homes every day. Innocent lives of stones, families shattered and cities reduced to rubble. We have to. We need more sanctions. We need stronger sanctions. And we have to kick out those Russians who live in peace here in Europe but are part of Putin's terror regime. And one more thing. I never hear from the right wing and the right wing extremists. Nobody's here. They never even condemn what Putin is doing to Ukraine. And Donald Trump, he doesn't do it either. On the contrary, he wants to invite Putin to the G 20. Mr.. Commissioner, please. It's no way that any European goes to a G20 meeting with Putin. Please promise us to us. I think that's really very important. And to the Ukrainians, I want to say there's a huge majority here in favor of you. We will not forget you. We will fight for you. Thank you very much.”
  Russia-Ukraine conflict (10th term)
• “I just want to have a short follow up question. Yeah, just a follow up question because we had an expert here in this commission and she said the business media of this platform is hate. And that was just explained. My question is when this Citigroup's in this when you talk to them, do they understand that algorithm is not just normal media? I mean, you buy a newspaper and you read what you want, but social media is completely different. You think people have understood what algorithms are?”
  Digital platforms liability for harmful and illegal content
• “54:15 – 14:56:30): Thank you, Chair. I'm very sorry, too many things at the same time today, but it's very good for running around and doing some sports without the fitness studio. Thank you very much. I just want to say a few things. First is the first of March, 1992, was when Bosnia declared independence and so we had an event in Vienna because there are many Bosnians living in Vienna. It was very interesting and one of the Bosniaks living in Vienna said at the end, we will not find a solution for a post-Dayton time. We will need someone from outside to help us, and that's a message I want to bring here. I'm afraid that's true. And when we had the members of parliament here a few days ago in Strasbourg, what did we learn? They mostly speak about the different groups, the three groups, and they hardly speak about their common country. So if we really want to have one Bosnian state entering the European Union, they will have to not only judicial reforms and other reforms like the other countries, but they will need a kind of a constitution that will fit to the European Union. So that's my, yes, that's what I really wanted to say and I would ask you all of you to think about that if it's possible, who would do that again, etcetera. And the second topic I want to mention is education system. When you come to a country and they talk officially about segregated schools, it makes me shiver. And that when I was in Sarajevo last time, I told them, you know, when two families come to Vienna, the kids go to the same school, learn with the same books, and learn about history together from one professor. And in Bosnia, they learn against each other, not without each other. They learn against each other. So I think also as far as history is concerned, they need some help and I think it would be our job also to help there and to do something because if we just watch the development of Bosnia, I'm afraid that will not have a good end. Thank you.”
  EU relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina
• “Thank you. Chair. Um, I will start at least. Uh, and thank you to all the experts. Was very interesting what you said. Uh, but, um, uh, I would suppose everybody who's dealing with the Western Balkans should have known most of it. And we have to ask ourselves, why didn't we do more about it? And of course, the colleague Van Brunt is right when she talked about Vucic. Um, we know he's an authoritarian. He knows we know how he treats the media. And the president, von der Leyen, just met to normally, thank God we have, uh, Madame course now because she has a different way of speaking to him, and I think that's very important. Um, but to come to my questions to Mr. Turnbull, um, you talked about, um, the aims of Russia and China in the EU. So what are the real aims and what are the real aims at the Balkans? And my second question is about, uh, um, the media, obviously the Serbian media, uh, is writing more or less what, what Vucic wants. Do they get money from Russia? Um, and then uh, to Mr.. Uh, if I understand it. Right. You talked about Russian networks in France and Germany. Uh, could you tell us more about that? And the second question is about Russians in Belgrade. Um, I suppose those Russians in Belgrade, there will be some rich people who could afford to leave the country, but there will be also people probably, who are, um, in the opposition to Putin.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “Thank you very much. We often talk about the different types of hybrid war. And today we've seen a particularly dangerous form of that which Putin has directed at Europe. I say that explicitly because some people in Austria say we're neutral. If we keep calm, nothing will happen to us. But I think today has shown that any Austrian who gets into an aeroplane can be victim to this, because influencing Floog data can be very dangerous and it might lead to an air crash. And so I say this to Austrians so that they understand that we saw what happened with the jamming to Mrs. von der Leyen's aeroplane, and then you have a disinformation campaign to follow that up, saying that this is all wrong. I'm also very happy to see the Defence Commissioner here, Mr. Kubilius, and that you will make sure that the Galileo navigation system will be as secure as it needs to be so that we can protect Europeans, including Austrians. Thank you very much.”
  EU-Russia relations (from March 2022)
• “Thank you, Mr. President. Dear colleagues. Commissioner. Yes? We will build a shield for democracy. We will build it together. The Commission and Parliament, they are members in this House who suffered under the Communist dictatorship. And the really sad thing is, many of them have forgotten it. Some of them sit in Hungary and now they support the Putin dictatorship. And Putin wants to destroy our democracy. He said it often enough. His people said it often enough. So believe at least your friend Putin, because that's as far as that is concerned, is very open. So we need this center for resilience. It will be the right platform. Let's build it as quickly as possible. The Russian system has billions of euros, works very precise lies and disinformation on Western platforms with fake accounts. Now we see it. Africa, Asia, bots and the right wing people there parody Russian lies and it's more on this digital platform. There's also sabotage and even murder. So we have to work together and tell it also the Americans and the American platforms. We will not be blackmailed by you, Mr. Trump.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “Thank you. Chair. Thank you very much for the report. I only have one question and it's the last last point. Point 11 adding ECAs audit rights. I wanted to know what what you mean with adding audit rights. And I have in general a question when I come back to your point of enlargement. Um, and I just name one of the countries of enlargement in Serbia where I've been recently, a few times. And when you talk to people, they're not from the government, but from the opposition. They say there's a lot of money coming to Serbia. Nobody knows about it that it's from the European Union, because the president is very active in explaining that all he's doing. Um, and that would for me, that's that's my question. How how could how, what could you do? What could we do in order that it must be clear if there flows European money to a country, that it must be clear, it has to be explained to the public also that it is European money. Thank you.”
  EU-Serbia relations
• “Thank you very much. Also from my side, Mr. Vector, for your presentation. If you question, everybody here speaks about radicalisation of social media and. But the American platforms just don't care. You know what I'm reading? I read request for violence. I read, uh, that I'm Nazis. Come, you can read Hitler forgot you. Things like that. And then you can press a certain button and say, I think this is a violation of your rules. And an hour later it comes back. That's not a violation. They don't care. You know, I was editor in chief for a long time. If I had a newspaper or a television station like this, I would be in jail. In the meantime, uh, or at least I wouldn't have any money anymore, because you pay endless sums and everybody talks about it. And we sit here and we don't do anything. And if we even ask, I think we should think about if that's right. There are always some people in the room and say, oh, that's censorship. Uh, but is it really censorship? You know, if I publicly now would accuse you of a crime, you would sue me, obviously, of course. But if someone accuses you of a crime on social media, you have no chance.”
  Digital platforms liability for harmful and illegal content
• “Thank you, President. Dear Commissioner Kubilius, thank you for your words, but especially thank you for your work. Finally, we are building up a European defense and I say that coming from a neutral country, the Austrian Liberals already said in 2019 that we need a common European defence. And by the way, there is also a strong defence industry in Austria, so we will work together on that as well. But there's one more thing. There is less information. And today we heard again, the people from the right wing are against the support for Ukraine. Yes, of course, because we are still for the support of Russia and that's dangerous for us. And I tell you one more thing. In the in the Financial Times, the headline was Germany's painful estrangement from the US. We also have to talk about that. 81% of Germans say they are afraid that the Russians want war all over, but 65% are afraid of us as well. So we have to have a strong Europe. And thank you for your work. Again.”
  EU competences on defence
• “Can you hear me now? Can you hear the translation? Can you hear me? Is that again? Yes. Of course. Uh, you missed an opening. So I'd like to attention to a contradiction on the on the extreme right side. They said that only certain scientific findings are permitted, but then some scientific findings are cited which say the opposite. So I think it's very dangerous when someone says here that we're living in a totalitarian system. Totalitarianism is in Russia, or you seem to like where you can land in prison for for expressing an opinion. So it's not in the United States to which you also like where Trump is cutting funding to in climate research, and that is also dangerous out in Hungary, where the universities are being interfered with. But you must also recognize that we we vaccination is good. And if you move away from that you get measles outbreaks. And those are scientific facts that you don't like. And then you say that mass vaccination is bad, but that's possible in our system. That makes our system vulnerable. But our job is to combat this disinformation where it's dangerous for people. So when it's you, if you do this, then you're damaging the next generation. Thank you.”
  Vaccination
• “Thank you chair. I just want to say two things. First, because we always talk about platforms and, uh, and algorithm and so on. Um, but but isn't there some consumer protection in other areas as well? I mean, I don't want to buy bread, uh, which is some dirt in it. And if it happens, I can go to the shop, or I can go to the producer and can say, hey, how did you do it? Why did you do it? And if there is, um, some disadvantage for me, he has to he has to pay for it. And information, especially as far as our children is concerned. Why is someone here in this room against the protection of our children? Um, that's something which really, I think is a very easy question. And I don't know why we get a real answer. And as far as reporting, um, strange things, uh, on the platforms is concerned, um, I want to just quote something on X. I'm sorry for the, for the language, but, um, you know, if you write something in favor of Ukraine or critical about Russia, you can get something like you are a Jew and we will get you and things like that.”
  Digital platforms liability for harmful and illegal content
• “And I want to go away from any any party interest. That doesn't interest me at all. Um, but what for me is so important is this disinformation works. We just heard about that. It comes out partly of Africa. Of course, it comes out partly from the troll fabrics in Saint Petersburg, but also from some groups here in in Europe, in the European Union. But my question is, what can your what can your initiatives do to explain how this disinformation works? To explain that Putin is having an incredible war. Last night he killed again, like 20 or 30 people in Kiev. And at the same time, there is a disinformation working here in Europe that is just defending his country. Et cetera. Et cetera. So all these lies and they are work in a certain part of our of our society. And what do you think we can do in different ways to show how Putin's interest and Russia's interests against our interests, but at the same time brought by certain groups also in the European Union? Because I think that's that's really dangerous for us. And I think that's what I want to talk to you. Thanks very much.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Thank you, president commissioner. The FPO has put out so much nonsense that I'd like to correct things. We've heard that a few people have died of antivirus. This is always the case. Well, that's incredible. And then they said this is a planned pandemic. Now that's a conspiracy theory, a planned pandemic, which is what they called COVID as well. Both of those are to insult the millions of people who died. And then we've heard that they're against vaccinations, and I would like to refute that and say, I'm grateful to researchers who create, vaccines and prepare for future crises. I'm happy that there is research into vaccinations. I'm happy that there are companies doing that. We need those vaccinations. It's really sad that there are still people who support these conspiracies instead of basing themselves on science, put their trust in science, which is protecting life for future generations.”
  Vaccination
• “Commissioner, thank you very much. I have two questions in both directions, east and west. Let's talk about the west. President Trump very clearly says he doesn't want us to respect our European laws. So my simple question is, how bad is the pressure already from Trump, his administration? Did he tell you or who told you that? What he openly says: if the Europeans have their laws, there will be new tariffs. What else do we have to expect from Trump? Also, as far as, I mean, if you compare it with cars, if we sell cars to the United States, they have to follow American rules, and the other way around, it's very fair. So how is this kind of conversation going with Americans? The next question, of course, is about algorithm. We know that the algorithms obviously are partly against the DSA. Is the DSA now your bible? Will you follow all of it in the DSA, or do we have to have compromise as far as that's concerned? Because Russia is more complicated. You know, I'm old enough to remember the Soviet regime, and of course, they also tried to influence us and they also gave money to certain groups in Western Europe. But there was just a few percent of communists, and it wasn't really interesting because we knew that our freedom, our democracy, is way better than everything the Soviets in their area had. Today it's different. Russia is giving a lot of money, and I'm talking about three billion, in order to influence our elections, in order to influence our media, in order to influence also political groups. My difficult question is, I put it very simply: do you think there is a chance to get in contact with these different groups, also in this house, to start the kind of discussion, why do you follow Putin's rules? Why do you follow Putin? Don't you see that he's a war criminal? Don't you see that it's a dictatorship? Don't you see all the advantages we have in European Union compared to Russia? Why is it so difficult to say that? Of course, the next question would be, and I talked to many Russian opposition people, and they say people in Russia don't get any information. Is there a chance that we build up kind of a Radio Free Russia, as we know that Radio Free Europe was very important also for Hungary and many other countries? Thank you very much.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “Thank you, chair. Yeah. My colleague talked about the Industrial Revolution. I thought we were going back to the medieval times, when there is a small group of people who can read and the huge group of people who can go to church and listen what the priests say and have no idea what's what's really happening. And that brings me to the point of education system. I mean, we say that every every child has to learn their own language, of course. Um, and I think we really have to change the education system that from very early times on, you have to understand what's happening here and also to understand what what the AI is doing. And then I heard the word that we have very talented innovations in Europe. Um, I hope that's true. And I know from Austria there's a very good professor. He's, by the way, he's Bavarian in the university. Uh, of of Lindsey. He's one of the stars of of artificial intelligence. And I think they really have great people. But where are the European platforms? And nobody talks about it anymore because obviously it's too late. But as you also learned, the the development is is going further and further. Um, so that's it's probably not not only an AI question, it's, it's a, it's a digital intelligence question. Uh, to do you see still the chance, um, that European companies probably together with the, with the EBU or other authorities could build up European platforms where it would be more logical that they follow our laws. Thanks very much.”
  Focus of EU policy on education (shaping workers vs citizens)
• “Are there any people, probably even from the European Union, who tries to make contact with them and probably cooperate with them? And to Miss Christine, um, uh, talking about coerce, what more could could you tell us? Is it only Chinese? It's the Russian. How do they do it? And my second question is, is there any EU information, any information which we give to the people there? Because. I'm sorry, Mr. Thatch is not here anymore. He doesn't want to listen. But I would like to tell him he's wrong when he says that people on the Western Balkans do not want to join the European Union anymore. Even in Republika Srpska, it's about 30%. And also we have been with the delegation to Republika Srpska. We talked to people there. We talked to the mayor of of Banja Luka, and he told us he also is a European and he wants to join the European Union, and we know it from the other countries. There's a huge majority who want to join the European Union. But where is the European Union? Where is our information? How do we accompany people there to understand what we are doing here and why it's important that they come to the European Union? Thank you.”
  EU enlargement
• “Thank you. Thank you very much, chair. Sorry for my voice. A little bit difficult right now, but it's getting better. So I will be very short and um, following up on Crystal as far as the US is concerned, is there an organization in the US that does the same work checking FEMA? Are you in contact with them? And what do you know what they see in the US. Um, and the other question is also about AI. I think it's 27% now. Um, do you see or since when is there an increase. And how do you know that it's AI? That's a difficulty that sometimes you don't know if it's AI or not. And because we discussed it quite often, the idea that the platforms have to sign it out. This is AI. You think that this will be feasible? Thank you.”
  Transparency and oversight of AI-generated content
• “Mr. president, dear Minister, dear Commissioner. I would like to speak Germany German, because people in Austria often say, what do you do in Brussels? What are you doing for people in Austria? I'd like to, I say, I'd like to protect you from, um, toxic food or toxic financial institutions. And. But there's also the issue of protection from false information like that from Putin's lie factories. We have this democracy shield for that, but we have to build that with the Commission against Falsified Media. We have this from Russia, um, cyber attacks, sabotage. There is a hybrid war against us, against us in Austria and in Europe, of course. And that's what we're defending ourselves against. But we must take action against the digital platforms in the US. I heard an expert saying that the business model in these platforms is hate, and that's how they earn money. It has nothing to do with censorship, dear friend. It's about protecting. Protecting people. Um, as we protect them from toxic foodstuffs, the Republic of Moldova is being attacked. In particular, a small country. Um, Russia has spent $350 million to provide false information there and falsify elections. The Patriots voted against. The Patriots are against that. They are traitors. We want they want to deliver the people in Moldova to Russia. We want to protect the people here, there and the people in Austria and also the people throughout Europe. Thank you.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “You can't do anything, And I really ask, what can we do against it? The second thing is about we heard already today about, um, especially Russian gangs organized in France and Germany. What is their aim? Um, is it also terrorism and where are. And that's my next question. Where are the ties between the Muslim Brotherhood and probably also Russia and China or Iran or other countries, I don't know. And that's also, you know, when I see sometimes on social media, one of those mullahs or, you know, people who say that they are following the Koran and they're speaking about that it is the right thing to beat up women and so on. That's the same thing. You couldn't say that in a, in a public, um, in a public room. But you can say it online. And I think the the violation is getting more and more and the radicalization is getting more and more. And actually really I mean, we will have a report and I hope we will have good ideas. But I really would ask you from your experience, and that's my last question. Where's the the the border from request for violence to real terrorism. Thank you.”
  EU policy on Islam
• “He also gave an interview to them in 2024. And afterwards he said he did not get money for it. So my question is, how do they I can prove that he got money. But as we know, they gave a lot of money to different also politicians. So how do you see the flow of money from Voice of Europe to certain people? Because there's also a right wing magazine called Freilich in Austria. They also had an interview with Mr. Medvedchuk and they also said they got no money and and so on. Are there any? Yeah. Um, yeah. Is there any intelligence to know how they spend the money? And then my real question is what's the action? What are we going to do? We know and we hear it from China. We hear it from Russia. We hear all this. What are we going to do together? Also to educate the people in Europe, what's happening and what really we want to do to stop this Russian influence against our freedom and democracy. Thank you.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “I think Parliament should have a really decisive role in this, in this resilience center, because we are the elected people of the of the Europeans. And so I think it's really necessary that we have a role in that, and we control what they are doing, and that will be not the end of the censorship. They will continue with the censorship, blah, blah. That doesn't matter. But we have we can explain easily that it's elected people who control what they are doing. And my next question, of course, is how this coordination with you named Edmo. I think that's very important. How that will work. And then, of course, also with the member states and I think the member states also have to play a role. And today and yesterday we heard from Armenia how intensively the Russians are doing their work there. And my last word. It's not only about disinformation, it's also about sabotage. It's about the security of people in Europe. And I care for the security of people of Europe, even if you don't. Thank you.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “59:27 – 15:01:50): Thank you. So I have six minutes now. Thank you very much. I have six minutes now because I can speak for the others as well. No, just a joke. Thank you very much, Jay, and thank you, Commissioner. Of course, the other colleagues asked about Gaza, and also I have to ask about it. I looked up again the countries. What is Argentina, Indonesia, Kazakhstan doing in Gaza? We know what's will happen in Gaza, and Trump said it openly, he wants to make money there. He personally, not the US, he wants to make money there. And so my question is really, what was the discussion there and how do they want to build up something in Gaza? And so the question is, what would we do? What do we really do there? And does it make sense to be there as Europe in an organization which is just weird? I mean, nobody understands what sort of organization is it? Is it a Gaza organization? It's the new United Nations. What is it? And what did the others say? And of course, the quote of the American ambassador Huckabee, who knows more about the Bible than his president, was also very strange. I mean, if all the Middle East is Israel, we don't have to discuss anything anymore. Was that a subject as well? And then I wanted to ask you a few countries. First of all, Lebanon, who is governing Lebanon? It was Hezbollah for some time, I think they are weakened now, but who can you really talk to there? That's my first question. And then about Algeria, I'm reading that a lot of European governments are warning people to go there. So the Commission is cooperating with a country where we tell our people not to go there. What's the way of talking to the Algerian government? And in general, my question is, you know, when I listen to you naming all these countries, we know in most of these countries the Russians are very active with very negative, very negative ideas. They are transporting refugees through Libya, sending them to Belarus in order then they can come to the European Union. So that's also my question about migration. Where do you see progress there? Thanks very much.”
  Relations with Israel - Palestine
• “Thank you. Chair. Welcome, Minister. Great to see you here. It was very interesting to listen to you. And you said we are living in crucial times. Dwight and I found it interesting. Also, you didn't even mention the United States or Donald Trump, because I think, as he said, he he thinks we are enemies. So where do you see our new strategic partners? But I think for all in all these difficult times, we need new strategic partners. Canada obviously is one talking about Ukraine. Two questions. First of all, what can we do to bring people closer together? Because I think emotionally, especially for people of Ukraine, it's very important that they see that we are getting closer. And the very concrete question, when I was in Denmark, I heard about your your projects of common production of weapons. Will you try to get other countries to do the same on Moldova? It's really important. The incredible. You talked about the hybrid war. Yes. There is an incredible disinformation. Only last year, the Russians spent 200 millions for disinformation in Moldova. And at the same time, Trump puts tariffs on Moldova. So he helps the Russians again with tariffs against Moldova because this is a poor country.”
  EU-Moldova relations
• “As an Austrian, let me say that 40 years ago we had a horrible wine scandal. There were irresponsible wine growers who had been adding, uh, illegal, uh, products to their wine. And as a result of that, quality was focused on. And now they have excellent wine in Austria. And now we can compare our productions with the French and the Spanish and the Italian producers. So quality is better. Now, I think that's the important point because quality is really going to help, especially helps the smaller producers. And another point, export. This excellent European product is something that we have to promote in other continents? Yes. In India? Mercosur? Yes. And that's why Goethe said that life is too short to drink bad wine. Thank you.”
  Export of EU agri-food products
• “And of course they need export. What else can we do to support Moldova. And talking about the Western Balkans. I want to talk about Serbia. First of all, why? Why don't we say clearly a system, an authoritarian system does not fit into the European Union. Okay. That same goes for Hungary. It's also an authoritarian system. Why should we get another one? We know that Vucic and his secret service is not only observing, but partly also terrorizing NGOs. We know the situation of the students. And you also talked about the enlightenment as far as foreign policy is concerned, and especially the media have a very, very hard time. And why don't we be more open as Markos is doing a great job. But I think from the line could say that also more clearly. And the last question about Bosnia. Um, of course, this is the most difficult situation. What can we do to to help the Bosnians to finally become a state because of all the things especially Dodik and the Republicans are doing? Thanks very much.”
  EU enlargement
• “Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Commissioner dear colleagues. Elon Musk is doing a lot of research for self-driving cars. Just imagine the system will be the strongest the most aggressive car will always have priority. It is impossible would be a lot of dead people. But what's happening right now on X? It's exactly that. The most hateful, the worst postings. They have the most viewers because of the algorithm. So the algorithm he is organizing is against us. And the next thing he's buying politicians in the United States, even judges. And that's what he wants to do in Europe as well. He wants to buy European politicians, and he already tries to influence European politics. And we're standing here and saying, no, it's fine. No, it's not fine. We will not accept it. And if the right wing people say there is censorship, yes, there is censorship right now because the algorithm of Mr. Musk, they are they are censorship. People cannot see what they want. They have to see what Musk gives them. And that is hateful. And I tell you, as a former journalist, I know and as an editor in chief, you have a lot of responsibility. And Musk has everything but no responsibility. He doesn't take care. No, on the contrary, he wants hateful speech. And if you have that on a normal medium, you would go to jail. So that's the point Mr. Musk must accept. He has to have responsibility. And that's the only way how we can do that. And really, Mr. Commissioner, I ask you, we need a very strong legislation and we need a strong commission. And he has to pay for that.”
  Digital platforms liability for harmful and illegal content
• “I think Parliament should have a decisive role in this, in this resilience centre, because we are the elected people of the of the Europeans. And so I think it's really necessary that we have a role in that, and we control what they are doing, and that will be not the end of the censorship, blah, blah. They will continue with the censorship, blah, blah. That doesn't matter. Uh, but we have we can explain easily that it's elected people who control what they are doing. And, uh, my next question, of course, is, uh, how this coordination with you named Edmo. I think that's very important how that will work. And then, of course, also with the member states. Um, and I think the member states also have to play a role. And today and yesterday we heard from Armenia how intensively the Russians are doing their work there. And my last word, it's not only about disinformation, it's also about sabotage. It's about the security of people in Europe. And I care for the security of people of Europe. Even if you don't. Thank you.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “I think Parliament should have a really decisive role in this, in this resilience center, because we are the elected people of the of the Europeans. And so I think it's really necessary that we have a role in that, and we control what they are doing, and that will be not the end of the censorship. They will continue with the censorship, blah, blah. That doesn't matter. But we have we can explain easily that it's elected people who control what they are doing. And my next question, of course, is how this coordination with you named Edmo. I think that's very important. How that will work. And then, of course, also with the member states and I think the member states also have to play a role. And today and yesterday we heard from Armenia how intensively the Russians are doing their work there. And my last word. It's not only about disinformation, it's also about sabotage. It's about the security of people in Europe. And I care for the security of people of Europe, even if you don't. Thank you.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Thank you very much. President, Commissioner, here we're talking about an independent international court, but we're also talking about technological independence, actually. The US have decided to sanction the ICC. They've frozen their assets, digitally delete content, block their emails, etc., etc.. And it's actually an attack on us on the European Union. And it's our technological dependence that has caused this problem. That's actually our weak point. We've got these regimes in Washington or Beijing, and if they just arbitrarily decide to block our access to these kinds of services, well, what are we supposed to do about it? We've got this blocking statute, and we really do need to activate that to protect our institutions and citizens for arbitrary sanctions. We're pleased and proud that, for example, there's an Austrian government agency that no longer uses Microsoft. It uses a European option. So that's another thing that we could do, I think. And Mikhail Gala is there. We've discussed this issue together, and we're in favor of these European technological developments. That's what we need to move forward towards. Thank you.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• “Of the non patriots spoke about corruption in Ukraine. Admittedly that exists but that's being dealt with. And look at Hungary there. There are also non patriots and they're they're not dealing with corruption. And we're talking about people. We met with Ukrainians this week who spoke about the 20,000 children who have been abducted, taken from Ukraine to Russia, forced to work as soldiers. Dimitri Kucuk was was abducted and he was taken to a gulag. And they said to him, Welcome to Buchenwald. Buchenwald was a concentration camp. That is how badly the Russians are treating people. And the Ukrainians don't want to live under a terror regime established by Putin. So, Commissioner, we must do everything in our power to bring these children back and to make means available to Ukraine. Let's help these children. That is surely understandable.”
  Russia-Ukraine conflict (10th term)
• “Yeah. Have you ever been to Moldova? Did you understand how the Russians interfered in the elections? Do you know what the Russian troll fabric is? Have you ever heard about all these Russian bots from Nigeria? From other countries? Do you know how well organized they are? Do you know what people like Dugin write in the internet? That all the Ukrainians should be killed? This is Russia. This is disinformation. And is it good or bad?”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “Thank you. President. Commission. President, Mrs. von der Leyen. As an Austrian, let me say the feeling you're talking about the single market. We must build on the single market. Yes, but we cannot have a situation where the same goods are more expensive in Austria than they are in Germany. And what about Serbia? I've been to Serbia quite a lot recently. A lot of people there are disappointed in you because you associate yourself too closely with authoritarian president, President Vucic, rather than standing by the people. Your commissioner is finally standing up, but they have expectations of you that people expect you to speak out against authoritarian systems. And on Russia. Thank you for finally saying that Russian assets belong to Ukraine. But now take action. We need deeds. People need to believe in what we say. And that would be a good move for Europe. Thank you.”
  EU-Serbia relations
• “09:19 – 16:11:30): Thank you, Chair, and first of all, I thank you very much to Anne Neumann. I think that's a very good initial draft and we will have some discussion because I think there are a few things where we have to strengthen the report. Because the fact is that autocratic regimes around the world not only have transnational repression but are murdering individuals also in the EU countries. And today we had a meeting of EUDs and there was a report from the International Strategic Action Network for Security about Belarus and what we heard was that the Belarus government uses Interpol in order to find citizens and Interpol, you know, by a red notice. And that is possible at least in European countries that those people go to prison for a few days. In other countries like Vietnam and also Serbia, those people are really in danger to be sent to Belarus. And by the way, there are Serbian students here today. I'm very happy that they are here today and they want to say they are fighting for a democratic Serbia and of course we also should support that.”
  EU-Belarus relations
• “09:19 – 16:11:30): Thank you, Chair, and first of all, I thank you very much to Anne Neumann. I think that's a very good initial draft and we will have some discussion because I think there are a few things where we have to strengthen the report. Because the fact is that autocratic regimes around the world not only have transnational repression but are murdering individuals also in the EU countries. And today we had a meeting of EUDs and there was a report from the International Strategic Action Network for Security about Belarus and what we heard was that the Belarus government uses Interpol in order to find citizens and Interpol, you know, by a red notice. And that is possible at least in European countries that those people go to prison for a few days. In other countries like Vietnam and also Serbia, those people are really in danger to be sent to Belarus. And by the way, there are Serbian students here today. I'm very happy that they are here today and they want to say they are fighting for a democratic Serbia and of course we also should support that.”
  EU-Belarus relations
• “Thank you, Mr. President. I still think about the Americans who helped to free Europe, who have to rebuild our continent. And they were our friends. The US standing for democracy and for freedom. And then came Trump. He said Europe was founded to screw the United States. We know he knows nothing about history. But we also know that there are a lot of Americans who still are in favor of good relations with Europe, and that is what I say. We need better relations with cultural institutions, with students, with young people, with civil organizations. The Americans in the majority, they are still our friends. And it must be clear, the Europeans, they work for peace. Trump. He works with Putin to make deals in Ukraine with the Europeans. We want peace in Ukraine and that's important. And it has to be the Russian money to rebuild Ukraine. And here I think we're in a huge majority. Viva la ropa. Thank you very much.”
  Russia-Ukraine conflict (10th term)
• “And probably some they gave give much more money. And so it's not fair anymore. So we need fairness. As far as that is concerned. Because that's really a freedom of speech I think we have. And that's also mentioned to refine our toolbox. There are a few things as far as this is concerned which we still have to discuss about. You mentioned in your document, also in some of my colleagues also emphasized the challenge of the instrumental instrumentalization of migration. And we know that Lukashenko is bringing migrants to the border. We know that Putin is organizing migrants in Africa to bring them to Europe, and that the beginning of this information, they do it. We have to explain it because many people do not know it. And I think that's also our job. You suggest the creation of a new, dedicated structure at the UN member states level. I think that's something how this structure looks like. I think that, uh, still a very complicated and, um, one more thing I want to mention as far as Hungary is concerned, you know, if there will be new laws that foreign organizations are not allowed to work. So no freedom of speech for someone who comes from a foreign what is foreign? If you come from another European country, you're not foreign anymore.”
  Foreign interference in Europe