- “Thank you. Chair. I would like to address Professor Young's in English, but with regard to my German audience. I will continue in German. You've carried out a deep analysis of the situation. References to Plato and Aristotle and many other references in academic and philosophical background. But what I didn't hear in your presentation is any kind of definition of democracy, and I assume that you have such a definition, and I'm sure you'll agree that democracy is not defined by what is to be decided, which specific political paths need to be taken, but rather how those decisions are made. That's what's decisive whether or not the majority will is represented in a Parliament. This parliament is the rulership of the people. And here we're talking about a selection, An election which makes the difference. And it's clear that here we're talking about external perspectives in your report. But at the same time, I'm sure you'll admit that the psychological mechanism of projection has a certain impact here, because the EU is doing precisely that and is becoming precisely that, what it is trying to combat. So, for example, you said that the narrative of crisis through which autocratic regimes legitimise themselves. And precisely in the ueu in the EU, we have this sort of situation that only certain views are tolerated in the European Parliament and others are excluded for being undemocratic.”
EU political integration
- “I think. The cop in Brazil. Cop 30, in Brazil, was another opportunity for the international climate sector to get together, thanks to efforts there. There they were stopped in their tracks. But that demonstrated once again that this climate, religion flies in the face of reality. Usa, India, many countries now refuse to accept sacrificing their industry for this hubris filled dialogue on climate. And what's the result? Thousands of acres and hectares of jungle were chopped down to organise the cop, uh, and all sorts of equipment and participants were flown in. Meanwhile, the climate sector becoming ever more extreme in their ideology. They're talking about sending money to the east. To the South. Mr. Hoekstra, I'm delighted that you failed because you've called for a rapid move away from coal and oil in the rest of the world. So before we make everybody poorer in Europe, let's bring this ridiculous crusade to an end. Whatever Europe does, this will have no impact on what happens to the climate.
**Nicolae ȘTEFĂNUȚĂ @Co-Chair: Thank you. Next is Mr. Greg Brown.”
Climate efforts
- “Thank you very much. Thank you very much to all of the speakers for their presentations. And we recognize that your organizations are carrying out important humanitarian work across the world. But I would like to focus on one particular problematic aspect which is linked to your work this year. By August, more than 100,000 illegal migrants crossed the Mediterranean to Europe. And. And the migrants? The migration pact. This problem is getting worse. And unfortunately, organizations which should be humanitarian organizations, are encouraging migrants to take the risky journey across the Mediterranean. And these migrants are gathered off the coast of Libya and they are transferred, transported hundreds of miles across the sea to Italy. And this is not about search and rescue operations, because otherwise these refugees would have these migrants would have to be sent back to the North African coast. No, this is more about mass migration to Europe and to incentivize this kind of mass migration to Europe and through humanitarian aid, your organization, your your organization, Miss Vazquez Medicine, Médecins Sans Frontieres is encouraging this kind of mass migration, and therefore people are being encouraged to embark on these journeys. There is currently a dispute with the Italian government. Which dealt with a boat in September. How do you plan to pursue your policy? Can you not see that there is? This is a very problematic development that is harmful for Europe, that is actively supporting this kind of illegal migration to Europe.”
Asylum & border control
- “Thank you very much, mister Ranstetter, for that. Well, we've heard what wasn't gonna happen when COVID, and then it happened. We were told that vaccinations weren't going to be mandatory, and then they were. In Germany, it nearly happened. Everything that was said ahead of time then actually happened, and that's going to happen again here. Yes. There's a virus behind this, but what politicians do with that is justification of this term plannedemic, a planned pandemic. This is not half as serious as politicians are making out. Good news.”
Vaccination
- “Prime Minister Frederiksen, many citizens in Germany are looking with envy, but also hope towards Denmark. Because you've managed what? Our government has not managed to do so far. Your consistent migratory policy protects your national identity and social cohesion in your country. And this is a model which should act as an example for Germany in the entire and the whole of Europe to protect our security and culture. So respect from Essen for that. But we're hearing worrying things. Um, chat controls and combating so-called false information being proposed for Denmark is a, um, a limitation on public freedom. Look at what you've done with monitoring private chats. Uh, and that's a threat to the heart of democracy. Yes, it protects children, but, uh, under that blanket, we shouldn't attack personal rights. So please ensure that besides security, uh, freedom also becomes a guiding line for your presidency. In which case, we wish you all the very most. Thank you.”
Privacy & detection of online child abuse
- “Any excuse in the EU's greed for epidemics kicks in. A little hantavirus with 11 cases is turned into a health crisis by Brussels, but we can see the intent behind that. The new preparedness union should turn is to turn any little health problem into a state of emergency. Together with the WHO, you're trying to grasp power and over, emergency measures. The WHO is even trying to turn the climate change into a health emergency with international scope. High alert just like for corona. That then justifies violations of limitations of few basic rights and a health dictatorship around the world. This creeping undermining of democracy by creating crisis ourselves has to end. Local crisis like Ebony need to be dealt with locally rather than scaremongering and using to the to the benefit of corrupt politicians and global pharma concern business businesses.”
EU competences on health (internal-competence axis, sharpened)
- “Thank you chair. I'm going to speak in German. We are from the ESN group. Welcome. The work done on the biodiversity protection and biodiversity in the seas and oceans. And of course, life on Earth is also the ultimate goal, protection of life on Earth. And we support that. But what is important is that we not damage ourselves further. I mean, this doesn't lead to that new report on the basis of the proposal from the commission does, however, go in the wrong direction as far as we're concerned. So rather than just transposing what is there, it adds further requirements on and obligations in terms of technology transfer and so on. And this goes well beyond what was decided upon initially. And we know this from the Green Deal experience. So it's an attempt to just save the world. And at the end of the day, we end up footing the bill. So in reality, the USA have signed up to but not ratified this agreement and probably won't knowing President Trump. Because he's given permission and authorization for mining at sea. This all means that with the powers, you know, at global level, not being on board Europe will just be footing the bill. Further costs, more bureaucracy and we will lose out competitively. Our maritime industry will be one of the industries paying the price and without providing better protection for the planet and for biodiversity. So let's not overdo it. But it's an agreement that we should transpose exactly as it is and not sharpen it any further. Economic costs. Social costs need to be taken into account and assessed correctly, so that we don't just take things on or just go off on a tangent on our own in Europe, because everything else, you know, we've seen from the Green Deal that was very ambitious, um, but at the end of the day has been more damaging for our industry than anything else. So it is an exercise not to be repeated. Thank you very much.”
Nature protection and restoration in the EU
- “Yes. Thank you. I'm going to speak in German. Today's this year's cop. Cop 30 shows a paradigm shift in the in the world. Us isn't there? China is proposing symbolic measures, and there are more and more conventional power stations being built. And Bill gates has come out against climate protection. That's a surprising turnaround. And it's astonishing the commission is sticking to its course. It's ramping things up with new climate goals by 2040. And for citizens, it will become very expensive. Expanding ETS to buildings and transport means that heating and transport fuels become more expensive. And for the economy, it's looking very grim throughout Europe. I'm giving you some figures from Germany 1.3 billion losses at Volkswagen, a loss of profits by 15% at Mercedes, the thousands of job cuts at BASF, BASF and further job cuts at Bosch, and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in German industry class. From the EU, the Ifo institute. The competitiveness of German industry is at a new low. You can add to that this Green deal and the EU's policies are very much responsible for that in machine tools and the optical industry and others are in a deep crisis. My question is, given this situation, how can it be? The EU in the MFF is devoting a third of its budget for climate measures with a questionable value. What will it take if there's to make a change, of course in the EU to make the EU competitive once again? The EU. Not lost it with its. Climate goals. Whilst the US and China are profiting from our misfortune and and we're losing out in AI, which will require a huge amount of energy. So when will we finally learn?”
Extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme
- “Thank you. A woman in the in a child's playground is told to put her clothes on. She complained about this. The police told her to do this. But then there was, uh, you know, there was a compensation request. It's all from Berlin, for example. Also. So people of color cannot be checked in the streets in Berlin, for example. These are just two consequences of what you plan to do. Expand the concept of anti-discrimination. Anyone who feels discriminated against who wants to make money can then achieve that because it's the person that is being complained against that would have the burden of proof. This would lead to systematic inequality, and Hungary is being told that it should give up its policies on child protection and its bans on pride. The directive has been blocked since 2008 and it should remain blocked. Thank you.”
EU policy on integration and ethnic, racial and religious discrimination
- “The European Commission is slapping sanctions of almost €3 billion on Google because they've fallen foul of the Digital Markets Act. You could think that this is a good thing because monopolies distort competition. But it's not that simple. The EU is lagging behind technologically, so they're hiding behind regulation. They're trying to use bureaucracy. What the markets should be establishing. If we had a better position technologically, we wouldn't have to fight Google and hamper innovation. President Trump has criticized the European Union. He's also criticizing internet censorship in the form of the DSA of the EU. All of this is not only fueling a trade war with the US, it's also damaging for EU citizens. It's a sad reality. Freedom in Europe. Is being championed by the US president who's going against this commission?”
EU rules on digital competition
- “Thank you. Chair. Thank you to all commissioners for your presence. Um, I would like to speak in German. We have this budget for global now. The global Europe budget, with its 200 billion, seems to be rather inflated because European interests are not being sufficiently taken into account of the principles that underpin it do go in the right direction, at least on paper. They sound good even when it comes to flexibility. We know that there are some problems that have been raised by some colleagues. However, they are phrased in a very vague and general way. So I have two concrete questions I'd like to ask Mr. Commissioner, on migration, first of all. Now the pressure that's increasing on the migration issue, there's a request from Belgium for return facilities to be established and for further measures to be taken to ensure that migrants are taken back by third countries. So I wonder whether, you know, the the previous measures until now really have not been successful. If you look at the migration figures. So is there going to be a comprehensive approach? Yes, in article 12. But that's set out there, but it's not really specific enough. And you said in your comments that a support for migration control will be implemented. Could you make some more specific statements? What lessons does the European Commission draw from past failures? Secondly, on financing NGOs, the Court of Auditors described NGO financing as untransparent, furthering its own political agenda in many cases rather than European interests and evading democratic scrutiny and controls. So which new control mechanisms will Global Europe establish to ensure that we can have the much needed transparency and have scrutiny of the way we use taxpayers money? And if I may, with just one last question for Commissioner Labib, Which I think. Is an issue that should be supported by consensus. Interruption. When it comes to the issue of abortion and Palestine, how can we deal with that?”
Asylum & border control
- “Thank you. Chair I'm going to ask in German. Vielen dank. Thank you very much, Mr. Gill. You've talked about the successes of Gavi and the humanitarian targets that you're working towards, but I think it's also important to say that there are private interests behind Gavi. So there's big pharma, there's the Bill Gates Foundation. These campaigns have done a lot of good around the world, have helped hinder diseases. But if we look at the Covid pandemic, I think that has cast a bit of a shadow over the vaccination work. There was an imposed vaccination vaccination system. I think the results were questionable. The vaccination, I don't think really, um, lived up to what was promised. It caused a lot of damages. And I think that hasn't really been fully looked at the consequences of the people that died. So I think that's something we need to really investigate further. And Garvey was involved in this as well. And now the, uh, we may do something similar, uh, with the, uh, with pandemics. And I think, uh, member states should or country should have the sovereignty to say when there is a pandemic or not. Uh, now, you mentioned Covid in your introduction, but not really any of the problematic issues. Um, the RNA vaccines, uh, as well. Uh, we've seen, uh, Cancer related to these types of vaccines as well. We, uh, have seen, uh, misinformation, uh, spread here as well. So I wonder what lessons you would draw from the Covid pandemic. Is there something that we can, uh, learn here? Something we could do, uh. Uh, rather than, uh, before we end up in such a situation again? Thank you.”
Vaccination
- “Thank you chair. I'm going to speak in German. It's very sad what we're hearing here. Instead of a discussion, we're having a discussion about how we can suppress discussion. And we're talking about here is not about disinformation or the fight against information, but the suppression of other people's views. And for example, Mr.. The the gentleman from Virginia, Mr.. Lyon, has pursued an aggressive political agenda and knows that the blackout in Spain was not caused by a power of variations during To the wind, which he dismisses as a conspiracy theory. But that shows the way things are. And the Commission says that we can have different opinions but not different facts. But if the Commission decides now what is a fact and what isn't, and what is opinion and what isn't. Then we're on the road to a totalitarian system. And that colleagues. That is what reminds us of the 30s, the 1930s. And we know that the Commission has paid NGOs in the life programme to back up it. I mean, that's nothing to do with science and democracy. That's just pushing a particular agenda. Peter Lazar, who is unfortunately no longer here, attempted to begin the discussion, saying that the proportion of CO2 emissions caused by the humanity is quite small. And he says that even this moment has to be monitored. But what about volcano eruptions and so forth? So all these, uh, events would make our efforts, uh. Useless. So this is just meant to close down discussion and dismiss as disinformation. We need this discussion. So my question to the commission, if you can answer, is where is the border between a different opinion and disinformation? And how can that how can you determine that?”
Disinformation & online freedoms
- “Mr. geekery, the AF, ARD and ZDF are two of the biggest members of your network, and they say that they are in favour of serious journalism. But that's not always the case. Last week, Jan Böhmermann from the ZDF was critical of a critical YouTuber on Clowns World and he published personal details, thereby doxing this person, making people know where he lived, etc. and yet people pay a license fee to this network, and if you don't pay the license fee, you could be fined or even end up in prison. Aren't these public broadcasters not worried about competition? Aren't, uh, isn't there a loss of trust in these, uh, traditional state media outlets? And then, you know, is it right to have a mandatory licensing for broadcasters? France, for instance, has gotten rid of mandatory licensing fees. Shouldn't other countries follow suit and get rid of mandatory licensing fees?”
EU support for traditional (non-digital) media
- “As high as it gets the EU wants to become a George Orwellian state. And the supervision of chat conversations is a violation of the citizens rights. Digital wallets are on the smartphones, contain all data sensitive data and opens the floodgates to violations. The totalitarian Each will then be monitoring the citizens and will also turn them into digital subjects. This will be the euro think and that that will lead to fake political opinions on the internet or on the charts, as some posts will be cancelled and others will be and will not be able to access their bank accounts anymore. Technically, we have to construct the system so that no one nor the state has access to such data. It is the same for Bitcoin and the. This EU cannot have such digital powers over its citizens. Thank you.”
Digital euro
- “Yes. Thank you. Barry. I think that I'm the only member here who was present on the trips. I just wanted to add a few things to what Lukas Mandel said. I mean, I think the trip was very successful. It was well organized. After the official program, I spent a couple of extra days there. And, uh, everything really was very well organized by the Pakistani embassy in Brussels. So I'd like to thank them. And obviously, I've, uh, sent those thanks to them. Now, the projects that we saw. Aimed to assist. Uh SMEs. And it was pretty heartwarming to see how a village can live from, uh, projects that are being funded by European money. And it's good to see, uh, small businesses working. For example, there was a woman who was producing milk and ghee, and then there was a project that related to bananas as well, so that was all nice to see. But the question is, with regard to all these things, how does this investment benefit Europe? Where can we see those benefits? Uh, because we get the impression that China is in a does more to benefit from its investment, whereas Europe is more involved in humanitarian assistance. So I think, uh, we really need to ensure that projects, uh, can be beneficial for the European economy as well. So I think, uh, in the future we really need to look at that. And we also need to look at the migration pressure from Pakistan. I mean, they have massive population growth. And uh, by the year 2050, there'll be over 400 million people in Pakistan. And, uh, by the year 2100, far over 500, a long way, far more than 500 million. So, uh, something will have to be done. I mean, we hear that 40% of children are malnourished or undernourished. So I think there really is a ticking time bomb there. And when we think about development policy, I think that, uh, we really need to bear that problem in mind. And it's something that we need to deal with together with the Pakistani authorities. Thank you.”
EU development aid (migration conditionality)
- “The obesity epidemic is a disaster. 60% of men and almost half of women are over both, and many morbidly so. It's not much better in the EU. And that's linked to cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The problem are ultra processed foods full of carbohydrates and sugar and unhealthy fats and a sedentary lifestyle in front of screens. Food companies are earning billions, but millions are dying as a result of obesity, more than die in word or malnutrition combined. Combined. It's hypocrisy to have these lockdowns during Covid that made the situation much worse, particularly for young people who were then condemned to a lack of physical activity. It's not just research we need funded by the EU, but we also need to push local agriculture for fresh food in kindergartens and schools, and we need to promote sport. Prevention is the key word here. Transparent labelling like the Swedish keyhole system, less sugar and less best fat bad fat. That would be better and give people a choice in what they eat. In the US things have gone further in the wrong and right directions. The food pyramid from Mr. Kennedy is based on healthy food and fights against profits in favour of healthy food. Make America healthy again. That's fighting obesity at the root cause and is saving money on health costs.”
EU measures on lifestyle-related behaviours (smoking, drinking, eating, etc.)
- “Yes. Thank you, chair. I'm going to speak in German. Finlandank Thank you much indeed to our speakers. We have to, according to question, independence of these 2 speakers. It's all they're all funded by the EU. And also the ESABCC that was set up under the UN to support climate change policy. So this isn't the result of actual science. We see tendentious studies being used. Otmar Evendro in 2010, in an interview, said, through climate policy, we are defending world assets. World policy is climate policy. That's the end of the quote. What about independence there? Overheated and underprepared, this study, I think, provides the same narrative. It's an online survey with 27,000 respondents, so it's not necessarily representative. These are subjective feelings. You know, I feel a bit hot, and this is different in Northern and South. So this is a similar sort of propaganda that we've seen from the EU. The number of fatalities through extreme weathers, well, apparently, has gone down by 99 percent over the last century. If you want to be resilient, you need proper structure, proper resources, and have catastrophe management right at the heart of things, not just come up with surveys. So there's this doubtful data. And then also from the SABCC, talk about an integrated framework for climate resilience, with measurable monitoring tools. Well, I think setting up a new EU governance body, I think that would be going too far. The APCC itself, talking about these extreme events, well, they've left their worst predictions to one side. So are we going to look at new developments in science or just look at the recommendations that you've provided? Thank you.”
EU policy on infrastructure for preventing climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, extreme weather etc.)
- “Commissioner. Colleagues. One of the concerns at the IGF in Oslo was about fragmentation and whether it would fall apart into American, Chinese, Chinese, Russian dominated parts of the web. The ESN essentially welcomes global openness of the internet. But commissioner colleagues, we need to pause and reflect. If you are really serious about transparency and democracy as you claim, please recognize that the Digital Services Act and some other censorship laws in the EU are not examples that you should be parading to colleagues in, as you did in Oslo. Trump thinks absolutely less than nothing of it. They don't want rules like this ease censorship. And if the IGF has got any useful mission that beyond being a technical facilitation, then it is precisely to help to avoid ending up in this Orwellian horror scenario. Thank you.
**Nicolae ȘTEFĂNUȚĂ @Chair: I now give the floor to Mr. Axel Voss.”
Digital platforms liability for harmful and illegal content
- “Thank you. Chair. I'm going to speak in German. Thank you. Ministers. You mentioned environmental protection. Protection of nature and competitiveness. You mentioned them so often in the same sentence that it sounds like they all work together very harmoniously. But in practice, in reality, we can see that environmental policy is actually damaging the environment with its solar parks and wind farms. They are destroying landscapes, they're cutting down forests, and emissions are being pumped into these areas. And it's very, very damaging. And it undermines Europe's competitiveness. The Green Deal, with a very unrealistic target of a 90% reduction of CO2, really is going to destroy industry. I can give you some figures from Germany from 2019. They had lost 250,000 jobs in 2019, and then they have lost thousands in the automotive industry as well. And we've seen a decline of 6.7% in that automotive sector. The GDP dropped in the second quarter by naught .0. 2%, and then exports to China dropped by 14% to the US by 10%. And a quarter percent of all companies have said that they are seeing less and less competitiveness levels. There are more bankruptcies, and the new labour market figures are really very drastic as well. So we have questions for you. Do you not see these contradictions? Can't you see that this European Green Deal is actually leading to the decline of the European industry and economy? You were saying that the EU and Europe was not being taken seriously in Geneva at that conference. Wouldn't you perhaps conclude that it's to do with this failed policy, and that this really is a terrible picture being projected to the rest of the world? We had actually hoped that the Danish presidency would be taking a much more Danish pragmatic approach to its work, but it seems to be quite the opposite. We have the EU line, the commission line that just seems to have been taken on. Um. Exactly. So I would be keen to hear what you can say about this terrible situation. Thank you very much.”
Energy (green transition)
- “So this means that democratic democracy is being linked to certain specific views. It's a fetish term to silence political opponents, which is being abused in Germany. We've had this situation for quite some time that the established parties see themselves as the democratic parties. My party, the AfD, is being excluded for being undemocratic, even though we have the highest levels of inner party democracy, because we elect our members and our executives based on a Swiss model. So all of this is done that we do what we can, but nonetheless, we have been, uh, under investigation by our internal services in Germany. So we can't have a situation where there's only one opinion which is considered to be democratic. And now we're talking I won't go into the comments on the EU Democracy Shield Committee because I'm running out of time. But my question, my question is, is, is Europe which is becoming autocratic? Is it credible in any way when it's coming up with policies and DSA and so on?”
EU Supervision of the Rule of Law
- “Choose Europe for science. Why should young scientists do this? Only if they want to become accomplices in the political lies peddled by our elite, which claims that excellence and academic freedom is what exists in our universities. But actually, the reality is that there are witch hunts against academics who do not sign up to the liberal, mainstream train of thought. Think of ourselves in Germany, Mr. Brandstatter. Go and read that for yourself. As miss von der Leyen said in May, diversity is the lifeblood of science. And in America, diversity programs are being terminated in America. That is why people are fleeing from there. They are not necessarily researchers. They are ideologically convinced people who we don't want to work welcome here. We've got to stop this gender critical Research and climate change research, and focus on proper research so that we achieve real academic excellence. And then perhaps Macron and von der Leyen's apparently hypocritical words might actually mean something in reality. Thank you.”
Governance of academic priorities within the EU
- “Well, we heard in Berlin, then the EU will come forward with a green transformation that, uh, that, uh, will fail on all criteria we're seeing in seeing in Germany and other European countries. Thousands of jobs being lost on a monthly basis. We're seeing businesses going bankrupt or leaving the EU. And that Trump in the USA has already rejected this. And India and Clima are also not interested in CO2 emissions and just laughing at the EU. This idea of the 1.5 degrees uh, is, uh, extremely, um, notable. But was seeing our freedom is being reduced as well. These measures are against any reason science and just an ecological dictatorship. The the message of the EU to the Berlin must be no more money for global South. For those who are profiteering from this climate business. And let's find. Let's understand that we can't stop climate change.”
Climate efforts
- “With the social network X, formerly Twitter, Elon Musk has created a new digital marketplace of ideas undermining the dominance of state media. Freedom of speech is under extreme pressure in the in the very countries where the principle was invented. Whenever governments, taxpayer's taxpayer funded NGOs and the European Commission invoked the fight against what they call disinformation. It is a pretext. In fact, they want to continue spreading their own narratives, their own, often disinformation, unhindered by critics. Official claims, for example, that the recent terror attack in Solingen, Germany, has nothing to do with immigration would remain uncontested on social media. The European Commission wants full control, as Britain's threatening letter to Elon Musk has demonstrated. But Musk is standing up to them, an action that requires a lot of courage at a time of massive state censorship in the name of democracy. Elon Musk reminds us what freedom of speech and democracy are really about. Namely, it is not about everyone saying only what is generally accepted and considered good, but that unpleasant and even harmful opinions must be allowed and tolerated To. Therefore, on the basis of this merits of freedom of expression, we as the ESN group nominate Elon Musk for the Sakharov Prize. Thank you.”
Disinformation & online freedoms