Ondřej DOSTÁL

Policy topics Ondřej DOSTÁL is active on

What Ondřej DOSTÁL has said (19)

• 2026-06-16 “54:52 – 11:55:54): So let's summarize the facts. It is The United States, who is starting wars and brewing mischief, in The Middle East. From the Iraq war started under false pretenses to the Iran war, started by Netanyahu and Trum. It is Israel and The United States who commit genocide and war crimes in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran. It is Europe, who is paying the price with increased costs of oil, gas, and fertilizers, and it is Europe, who is suffering from migration waves, from these conflicts. My question, missus high commissioner, should we now reward the Israelis with continued cooperation and reward the American with a very nice Basel trade deal, or should we rather speak and trade with decent states from the rest of the world who never attack anyone, who offer much better markets, and who uphold United Nations principles. I plead for the 2nd approach. You, unfortunately, chose the 1st 1st.”
  Relations with Israel - Palestine
• 2025-04-29 “E-001707/2025 Answer given by Mr Tzitzikostas on behalf of the European Commission In line with the commitment in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy 1 , the Commission has adopted a proposal 2 to amending inter alia Directive 2014/45/EU 3 on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers. The Commission has carefully considered the impact of the measures in the proposal. An assessment of the proportionality of the proposed measures was conducted as part of the Impact Assessment accompanying the publication of the proposal 4 . The Impact Assessment shows clear road safety and environmental benefits associated with the proposed measure to require annual testing of vehicles older than 10 years. This measure would impact 11 Member States, as 16 Member States already have in place such controls (certain Member States require annual testing even before vehicles reach 10 years from their date of first registration). While Periodic Technical Inspection costs are a matter for Member States, based on the figures supplied in the question, the cost of the additional inspection in the Member State concerned will range between 2 and 4 euro per month for a car owner. However, according to the IA, older cars are involved in crashes almost twice as frequently as newer ones. In the 11 Member States concerned, over the period 2026 to 2050, the measure would save approximately 1,850 lives and prevent around 21,000 severe injuries, as well as significantly reducing emissions of air pollutants. The proposed measure can also be expected to bring about healthcare savings by mitigating risks related to road safety, including in terms of the estimated reduction in severe injuries related to road accidents. 1 https://transport.ec.europa.eu/eu-mobility-transport-achievements-2019-2024/sustainable-smart-mobility_en. 2 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2025%3A180%3AFIN. 3 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2014/45/oj/eng. 4 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52025SC0096.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• 2025-02-13 “– Paní předsedající, vážení voliči, mám čtyři důvody, proč jsem dnes hlasoval proti rezoluci o Gruzii. Důvod první, Evropský parlament by se měl věnovat potížím Evropy, ne usnesením o cizích zemích. Je to neuctivé a neužitečné. Oni mají své problémy, my máme dost vlastních. Důvod druhý, kritika gruzínských voleb je dezinformace. Zásadní výhrady proti nim neměla ani mise OSCE, ani mise Evropského parlamentu. Gruzínci si jasně zvolili Gruzínský sen. Evropský parlament nemá žádnou pravomoc určovat, kdo bude v Gruzii premiérem či prezidentem. Důvod třetí, rezoluce vyzývá k puči a k financování nepokojů z peněz evropských občanů. Vyzývá, abychom se dopustili stejného zahraničního vměšování, které tady soustavně kritizujeme. Exprezidentce Zurabišviliové skončil mandát. Nechť odejde. Exprezident Saakašvili byl v řádném procesu trestně odsouzen za zneužití moci. Nechť svůj trest vykoná. Důvod čtvrtý, politika, kterou rezoluce Gruzii vnucuje, by jí připravila podobný osud, jaký stihl Ukrajinu. Gruzie tu není proto, aby dělala pěšáka Západu v boji s Ruskem. Tímto se Gruzii omlouvám za pokus o destabilizaci ze strany Parlamentu. Přeji jí rozumnou vládu, mír a prosperitu.”
• “Dear colleagues, in connection with the budget, I would like to remind you that we sit in Strasbourg despite having a completely adequate building in Brussels. Each month our travelling circus moves to and from Strasbourg. Spending three nights in expensive hotels and bringing along also thousands of poor staffers destroying their family lives. The European Parliament has repeatedly voted with overwhelming majority on having a single seat. The fact that we are still moving to and fro irrefutably proves our pathetic irrelevance. How can we discuss wars and values when we cannot even decide our own seat? They say the Strasbourg building is a European symbol. Yes, it is a symbol of EU's mismanagement and disrespect of taxpayers money. Please, colleagues, can we change it? Thank you very much.”
  EP seat in Strasbourg
• “Ladies and gentlemen, dear commissioners, the European Council held an exchange with President Zelensky of Ukraine and promised him an unwavering support this week. However, media are full of a multi-billion corruption case in Ukraine targeting the inner circle of the same President Zelensky. Is this something we really want in the EU? Thanks to the invitation by the Patriots, we had Professor John Mearsheimer in the Parliament. He painted a bleak picture concerning Ukraine. The war is a result of an unwise attempt to enlarge NATO. The United States will pivot to Asia. The war will end in an ugly victory of Russia, resulting also in weakening NATO and the EU. But Russia will not attack EU. Not even go beyond the Russian speaking regions of Ukraine. So told Professor Mearsheimer. He does not tell nice tales, but tends to be right. Let us adapts to the realities. Let us disentangle from the quagmire of unending war in Ukraine. Let us support a peace solution in the framework of Ukraine's neutrality, and engage with the countries of the global South to guarantee it. World has changed. Let us concentrate on the core task of the EU, which is the prosperity of its member States and its citizens. Thank you.”
  Russia-Ukraine conflict (10th term)
• “Thank you professor. Sorry for bothering with my constitutional obsession, but I would like to ask who actually decides in times of crisis? Are the states? The member states are still sovereign, and they keep some sovereign powers, especially in crisis, as we have seen in Covid. Uh, and, uh, I have read very interesting in the interest, the Polish, uh, Constitutional Court decision on, uh, Green Deal. Uh, but, uh, I know for a fact in Czech Republic, uh, that, uh, the crisis law, which is a constitutional law, basically overrides everything. Uh, including the EU law. So I would like to ask if somebody analyzed what would happen if a state decides differently from the EU, for instance, in mobilising pharmaceutical personnel or keeping some drugs within the country and not giving them for disposal of other states? And if these things were somehow resolved or proposed to be resolved. Thank you.”
  Jurisdiction conflicts between EU and national courts
• “Thank you. Chairman. My speech is not far right. Not far left, but technical. Uh, first of all, uh, I have noted with interest, uh, the recent decision from the Polish Constitutional Court, uh, which deals with the issue of state sovereignty versus, uh, the policies of the European Commission. Uh, in this particular case, a Green Deal policies. It said that the Polish constitution is supreme in some areas in which it cannot be intervened from the EU level. This Constitutional Court decision is interesting, but not surprising. There are similar discussions in the Constitutional Court in Czech Republic and other constitutional areas. Uh, countries, uh, in times of adoption of the Lisbon Treaty. Uh, so I would like to ask the commission if they analyzed, uh, where is exactly the hard limit on what the EU law, either commission or the courts or whomever, do before it collapses into the sovereignty of the nations in this in this, uh, uh, situation concerning the energy mix, uh, following this, uh, republic, we will have elections in four months. And, uh, there is something like 60, 70, at least percent of people supporting parties against the ETS two measure. It is not a result of a disinformation, it is just the result of the fact that we have a great percentage of house ownership and at the same time, the low, low buying power and a lot of people are using cheap cars, which, uh, needs uh, well, uh, to, to get to, to the, to the work. So it would be, uh, exorbitant for them to finance the new costs of ETS. Two, uh, people don't believe, uh, that, uh, any measure of, uh, helping them from the state would be effective, uh, because they have seen the friction and administrative losses, uh, from taking, uh, the taxes from them or the payments from them and then returning them through, through through Brussels. Uh, so, uh, the disbelief, uh, into this is, uh, quite high. So given these two issues, the constitutional issue and the public policy issue. Do you see the continuation of this project as realistic? Thank you very much.”
  Jurisdiction conflicts between EU and national courts
• “Dear colleagues. Dear Commissioner, I urge you we must not be pulled into someone else's trade war. Earlier in this year, the USA tried to impose export restrictions on China. China responded with restrictions, US backed off and on 30th October they reached a deal. Caught in the rivalry was the Dutch company. Next year, after US pressure, the Dutch took control over the Chinese owned chipmaker. This step prompted an immediate Chinese response, disrupting EU automotive supply chains. China is a crucial trade partner, not a rival. We depend on them on many items, from rare earths to medicines. China is also one of our greatest export markets. We cannot afford to lose either. Eu must not become a proxy in the EU. In the US. China. Rivalry. Our policy must be independent. Focus on EU interests. Support EU workers and industries and remove tensions in order to secure US profitable access to world markets. Thank you.”
  EU-US trade relations
• “Good morning. I welcome what Donald Donald Tusk mentioned about the intention to deregulate. And I hope it is real. We are responsible to voters, not to abstract climatic targets. Concerning ETS two, as it is, it will simply not happen. Whoever promotes that in my country, Czech Republic will lose the next elections. The support for this policy is something like 20%, perhaps 30 at most. It is not a majority. It is not the result of some disinformation. It is simply the opinion of voters. Perhaps Poland is not very different. What I propose is not to do nothing but to respect proportionality. There are good things in each agenda. For instance, the circularity of cars is basically a good thing. But the current proposed regulation, which says that used cars are arbitrarily labelled economically irreparable, must be scrapped. This is immensely toxic with the voters. Please pay attention to these details to the level of exact wording of each proposed rule. Generally, I think that in 10 or 15 years technology might develop and many of the targets will be feasible to achieve without without much pain. But if we push it now, it is very bad for the idea of European Union, because if we squeeze the people too much, they will vote to get rid of the regulation and we as Democratic politicians will have to respect that. Thank you very much.”
  Extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme
• “It is no coincidence we should not approve this. Our tariffs are 0%. There's our 15%. That's no agreement. That's capitulation. Let us not put a thumb up to the vassal promise by Ursula that we will buy gas for 750 billion in weapons for 600 billion from Trump. No way. Trump is threatening Greenland, Spain. We should be adopting sanctions, not trade agreements. It is Trump's illegal war against Iran which deprived us of gas from the Gulf area. It was the Americans who were after Germany due to Nord Stream, which then happened to explode. Who believes this is coincidence? I will be very happy to sell off the Czech national treasures to those who. Those who can promise us fair deals. We do have better partners in the world than the 300 million Americans there are. Let us show Trump our strength. Then we get better conditions. Thank you.”
  EU-US trade relations
• “(21:54:41 – 21:55:57): Thank you, chairman. I'm a lawyer, and I enjoy reading laws. I read this Chinese 1. Did you read it? I don't think so. In China, minority languages are protected by constitution. This cannot this law cannot and doesn't change it. It stipulates a learning of minority languages, and they're using public alongside with Mandarin and promotes, ethnic regional autonomy. The new law does promote that every Chinese can speak Mandarin, a common national language, but this this is quite normal thing which many states do. After these decades, in China, most Tibetans don't even speak Mandarin. At, and the very majority of, Mongolians use Mongolian every day. Now compare, with, say, France. We sit in Alsace, in Strasbourg. 3 generations ago, 70% of people around Strasbourg spoke Alsacean. Now under 20. How is it possible? The French constitution excludes minority languages from any official role. Some Corsican or Britain, no, because French did everything to kill these languages. So if you are concerned about regional languages, leave China alone and start start right here in Strasbourg, France. Thank you. Thank you very much. Commissioner Hajalebi.”
  EU-China relations
• “Thank you for for a possibility to speak. I'm from former Czechoslovakia, a country on a cold world, cold War, borderline. We had an excellent infrastructure for all kinds of health risks connected with major war, from mass casualties to use of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, including civil protection. Large part of this infrastructure and important knowledge base about experts and general population was, however lost and our health care system is no longer integrated as it was. I see some correlation between privatization of public health care systems and this loss of preparedness. Commercially, it doesn't make much sense to maintain surplus capacities in hospitals for crisis or to stockpile medicines during Covid. A large part, a large part of the burden was borne by the Under-financed understaffed local public hospitals, which were all times before criticised by market proponents as superfluous. This privatisation narrative is still there. Do you think it should be countered? And if yes, how can you help with this? Thank you.”
  Public and private sectors role in healthcare services
• “Dear Europeans, the global market is no longer a blue ocean. It's a red ocean. It's a tough competition where there's no place for rent year corporate oligopolies, dinosaurs past their prime who produce overpriced poor quality products and then sent lobbyists to Brussels. If you do not want to continue crying about how the Chinese are beating us, let's change our approach. Let's invest more in public infrastructure, in energy grids, technical education, healthcare, digitalization of public administration. Let's fight against tariffs and sanctions. Let's pursue economic diplomacy free of ideology, which we unlock resources of raw materials and markets. Let's support the competitive environment in the single market that will force companies to innovate and lower their margins. Our consumers will appreciate it, and only in this way we shall discover the European champions, companies that will survive in the world, pay taxes and give jobs to the people.”
  EU Competition policy
• “Colleagues, it is high time to change regulation of energies because times have changed. The US aggression against Iran have stopped supplies from the Persian Gulf. We have also severed ourselves from Russian supplies and Russian US supplies are very expensive. Green energy is not going to save us, so we are down to nuclear and to coal. Building small nuclear reactors is slow and some of the projects are being cancelled. Coal cannot does not have to be imported. We mine it. We cannot be exploited through coal. So let's change it and let's maintain coal energy. During the crisis, I grew up in northern Bohemia and I cannot be picky. I do not have to be preached about coal pollution, but it is today much cleaner as it is in the interest of the European Union.”
  Fossil fuels
• “Thank you. Chair. Thank you, colleagues, for sharing a minute of the time of your life for an important topic of global health across political lines. We work to make health care accessible, support basic vaccinations, and improve health outcomes in Europe and beyond. But I need to raise an uncomfortable topic around the world. People are dying not because medicine doesn't exist, but because they cannot get it. Hospitals have no supplies. Pharmacies run of basic medicines. Often this is not because of natural disasters or corruption, but because of unilateral sanctions that we impose, enforce, or fail to oppose. A few weeks ago, I hosted a conference with UN Special Rapporteur Professor Elena Duhon. Diplomats over 30 countries shared heartbreaking stories about cancelled medical shipments about our children in severe pain because life saving medicines couldn't reach them, about hospitals forced to decide who they could treat and who would they turn away. Economic sanctions. Sanctions severely exacerbate gender inequalities in health by shrinking public budgets, reducing access to medicines, and weakening medical infrastructure, and women bear the brunt of these impacts through increased poverty, reduced access to reproductive health services, rising maternal mobility, and higher risks of violence. Research. Medical research confirms what they told us. A study in The Lancet found that sanctions worsen health outcomes, and over half a million people die each year linked to sanctions. Half of these deaths are children under five years old. We must be honest. If a policy causes so much suffering, We need to rethink it and do something about this. In April, I will go to Geneva to once more listen to Professor Doohan. The Special Rapporteur and I will want to speak also about the W.H.O. in this House. My formal procedure possibilities are limited. But please, colleagues, if someone of you would be willing to adopt this topic for discussion at sand, I would be very, very, very welcome. And note not only me, but people all around the world. Thank you.”
  Debt relief for developing countries
• “Dear colleagues, a few technicalities since we import 80% of critical medicines from China and India, we are not a strategic rival, but rather a dependent. Rebuilding our pharma industry will take 5 to 10 years. Until then, we'd better be a good trading partner of China and India. Mr. Commissioner, please tell it to us also. The European Union does not exactly procure drugs. They are procured in countries like mine by private wholesalers who do not use public procurement and by pharmacies who serve their clients, not EU solidarity. So where exactly is EU competence in that? And if even EU somehow procures drugs, including expensive orphans, how exactly will make the insurance companies to reimburse that? And if the drugs are not reimbursed, what will you do with the stockpile? It happened already with Covid vaccines, which our Polish friends I learned the hard way. I think the idea is good but needs some serious business planning. Thank you very much.”
  EU competences on health (internal-competence axis, sharpened)
• “Thank you very much. We're discussing European sovereignty, and that's a bit misleading, because sovereignty is a state of a nation, and Europe is not a nation, and therefore has no sovereignty, but only delegated powers which has been delegated by the sovereign member states. Obviously, we need to protect that sovereignty, but very often. There are incursions during the electoral period, and there's been manipulation and secret services of country A leaks information to the media, thus influencing the outcome. In state B, this Parliament can do nothing in these situations. There's no point in looking for technical solutions to a lack of respect.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “Thank you, honourable colleague. Minister. You are the chairman of the delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee for the United States. Witkoff communicates with Russia. Trump communicates with Russia. Indians. Turks. Gulf States. Israelis. Pakistanis communicate with Russia. But you chose not to communicate with Russia. No one asked you to agree with them. But the point of your job is to keep diplomatic contact. What is the point of you being the chairman of the delegation to Russia if you decline to speak with Russian Parliament of government? Do you sincerely believe your approach serves the best? The European citizens? Thank you.”
  EU-Russia relations (from March 2022)
• “Thank you. Chairman. My speech is not far right. Not far left, but technical. Uh, first of all, uh, I have noted with interest, uh, the recent decision from the Polish Constitutional Court, uh, which deals with the issue of state sovereignty versus, uh, the policies of the European Commission. Uh, in this particular case, a Green Deal policies. It said that the Polish constitution is supreme in some areas in which it cannot be intervened from the EU level. This Constitutional Court decision is interesting, but not surprising. There are similar discussions in the Constitutional Court in Czech Republic and other constitutional areas. Uh, countries, uh, in times of adoption of the Lisbon Treaty. Uh, so I would like to ask the commission if they analyzed, uh, where is exactly the hard limit on what the EU law, either commission or the courts or whomever, do before it collapses into the sovereignty of the nations in this in this, uh, uh, situation concerning the energy mix, uh, following this, uh, republic, we will have elections in four months. And, uh, there is something like 60, 70, at least percent of people supporting parties against the ETS two measure. It is not a result of a disinformation, it is just the result of the fact that we have a great percentage of house ownership and at the same time, the low, low buying power and a lot of people are using cheap cars, which, uh, needs uh, well, uh, to, to get to, to the, to the work. So it would be, uh, exorbitant for them to finance the new costs of ETS. Two, uh, people don't believe, uh, that, uh, any measure of, uh, helping them from the state would be effective, uh, because they have seen the friction and administrative losses, uh, from taking, uh, the taxes from them or the payments from them and then returning them through, through through Brussels. Uh, so, uh, the disbelief, uh, into this is, uh, quite high. So given these two issues, the constitutional issue and the public policy issue. Do you see the continuation of this project as realistic? Thank you very much.”
  Jurisdiction conflicts between EU and national courts