Jeannette BALJEU

What Jeannette BALJEU has said (25)

• 2026-06-17 “(15:50:48 – 15:52:06): Thank you, commissioner McGrath, for being here for on this debate on the electrification action plan. And I say action plan, and that is what we need. We need more action for consumers and industry. And let me look specifically at the industry because when we see industry, especially chemical industry, they are very much important to the competitiveness of Europe. The chemical industry makes sure that we have medication, that we have ingredients for the batteries, that we have constructions for cars, you name it. But what we see that there is also a difficulty for industrial clusters to work on this electrification. We see that with the grid package, there are steps working on towards speeding up permitting, and that's a good part. But we need more action, and more action is important for this industry as well. We have to look at long term contracts, a baseload current that is throughout the clusters on an equal level and intensify the electrification also of the industry. So what can you contribute to especially these clusters? Thank you very much, miss Paulus.”
  Energy (green transition)
• 2026-06-17 “(09:48:19 – 09:49:21): Dutch as well. Now in The Netherlands, we have a cabinet that has chosen to earmark a lot of funding for defense. Can you not recognize that there are other approaches possible here? President. Well, well and good. The Dutch attitude is typical. It creates expectations, and that leads to disappointment. If you want to lead, you need investment and that costs money. We need to create a NATO. We need to look at chips, the economy. That's how we create strength in Europe. That's very important in The Netherlands and around Europe. Thank you.”
  Defence spending
• 2026-01-29 “P-000368/2026 Answer given by Executive Vice-President Séjourné on behalf of the European Commission After a substantial increase in intra-EU trade over decades, Single Market integration has reached a plateau. Following a surge after the pandemic, trade integration in goods declined in 2023 and 2024. An important driver behind the fluctuations is energy price volatility. Yet persistent barriers at national and European level as well as administrative burdens continue to hold back the Single Market 1 . The European Product Act proposal that the Commission is preparing aims to create stronger synergies between standardisation, conformity assessment and market surveillance, ensuring coherent settings, application, and enforcement of product rules. The reform will notably accelerate the standard-setting processes and make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to contribute to the development of standards and to use them. The Single Market Strategy 2 is the Commission’s plan to tackle the most harmful Single Market barriers. Following the informal EU leaders’ retreat on 12 February 2026, the President of the Commission announced a ‘One Europe, One Market Roadmap and Action Plan’ 3 to be presented for the March 2026 European Council. It will include concrete targets and timelines to deliver on commitments, to be agreed and committed to by the Commission and the two co-legislators. The roadmap will have five building blocks: reducing administrative burden, building one market, building one energy market, digital, and trade. 1 2026 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52026DC0046 and its accompanying Staff Working Document: https://eurlex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52026SC0030. 2 https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/strategy_en. 3 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_26_405.”
  Overall simplification of regulation in the EU · EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Thank you. It's unfortunate that the European economy is not as strong as it could be. It really is a shame that we are not making full use of our internal market. Hence the importance of continuing to work in this area. And I see that the Commission is proposing measures but simplification. The terrible ten. That's not enough. Yes, it's a package, but there are, in my opinion, other ways to make things simpler and to avoid this fragmentation in these divergences. The Commission has tools based on I In on artificial intelligence without mentioning things like ChatGPT. The Commission could certainly use member states tools as well. Ai would allow for a real analysis, allowing us to see what the differences are between member states. I'd like to know whether the commission is making use of these kinds of tools, and if not, I would encourage them to. It would also be interesting for the Parliament to understand where the differences exist between member states.”
  Artificial Intelligence
• “Thank you very much. Chairman. Commissioner, with 25 years until 2050, that sounds like a long time. But it's five parliaments, including this one, and we've got three times, three periods of investments because investments and planning and so on takes eight years. If we want to maintain our basic industries in Europe and have our climate policy. We need a marshall plan for Europe with multiannual agreements. The three proposals that I'd like to see there, first of all, Of having more and more cross border infrastructure for reducing carbon. We'd like to have. Electricity grid for the whole of Europe, which we can be paid for. That is affordable. How are you doing with negotiations to make this a success? Thank you.”
  EU energy infrastructure integration
• “Thank you so much, chair. On behalf of my colleague Morten Lokkegaard, I will give some points on the, uh, on from the renewal point of view. Um, yes, it is a very important sector. This is a sector that is not always acknowledged as a strategic sector, but it's very important also to the food, uh, um, uh, food area. But in general, when we look at biotechnology, um, it is also about boosting growth and competitive competitiveness. And we need to strengthen the competitiveness undoubtedly is one of the most important things in this time in this period, as it is crucial that the as the report reflects, that we contribute to a efficiently and a strong sector. Um, this was shown as mentioned already in the Draghi report. Um, so in biotech, there is still a lot of potential and a lot of opportunities for Europe to become global leaders. We have many companies that are very successful, but we see a certain problems, of course, that we need to discuss here. First of all, very much in this house, of course, always the discussion, simplification, the fundamental requirements for everything that was mentioned.”
  New Genomic Techniques
• “Thank you. Chairman. I'll be speaking Dutch. We often mention energy nowadays, but it doesn't really help us a great deal if we can't get it anywhere. Which is why this file is important. Just to make sure that we can simplify the building of infrastructure. Now, the renew Group has a pretty straightforward approach without grid expansion. You can't have electrification. You can't have integration of renewable energy sources. You can't make industry sustainable. And therefore there's no solution to net congestion. Which is why this is a very important file. I'd like to thank the rapporteur for his approach and for being constructive. I appreciate that he's trying to achieve a balance. What we see in the Netherlands, for example, my country, is that this is already a major problem, that net congestion stops the building of homes and expansion of industrial areas, and also the building of loading infrastructure. So faster permitting is not just a luxury. It's really a matter of urgency, but it does have to be done in a secure way. And we need to make sure that we protect the environment. So we go along with what the rapporteur said. Swifter permitting cannot lead to weaker decisions. Or, at the end of the day, more court cases. So we really need to look at what works in practice. We need to have clear deadlines, better coordination between the various authorities, digital procedures, and. We need to avoid files being reopened because of additional requests for information. Now, if we can organize this properly. Then I wouldn't want there to be tacit authorization or agreement. That doesn't lead to greater clarity. We have to have clarity from the outset and we need certainty. That's really of importance. And we also need to look at the effects. Take the example of nitrogen. What's the trade off between building infrastructure and then the emissions reductions that you achieve at the end of the day. It's important to look at that and have the big picture. So I don't think that temporary emissions is a way forward. So we need a high level of environmental protection, legal certainty and grid expansion. That's the balance that the renew Group is looking for.”
  EU policy on permitting for renewable energy projects
• “Thank you chair. I'll be speaking Dutch. First of all, thank you to colleagues and the rapporteur for the amendments that they have tabled. And I would also like to thank the rapporteur for his initial reflections on those. I would just like to take the opportunity to highlight our Objectives and priorities. For us, it is crucial that we focus on stronger, more sustainable and more resilient Europe. And this has to go hand in hand with simplification for of European legislation during the procurement procedure. As the rapporteur has already said, and I was happy to hear this. The the amendments have touched upon a number of points that are important to our group. First of all, a simplification, better access for SMEs and use of digital tools, as well as flexibility for business people and ensuring that procurement documents are shorter, more usable and easier. For start ups and SMEs. We have to make sure that they are not facing complex procedures. We want to see a standard procedure that will save time, money and administrative effort for our businesses. Another important part of this discussion is adapting the threshold values. I see possibilities here because a higher threshold, um, will make things more difficult for SMEs. We want to see, um, more room for local and regional governments to act here as well. At the same time, here we do want to ensure that there is a certain level of transparency, and we need to ensure that we are careful about this. Other important points for us are sustainability. Um, the Green Deal is, uh, not, um, so much of a problem as the rapporteur has set out. We think that adapting to our climate change goals are key for a sustainable, liveable future. And, um, we have to stimulate demand for sustainable products and services. This will help us to, in our green transition and to strengthen the European Union. Finally, public procurement procurement has to be used for, um, a greener future. And I look forward to further negotiations with the rapporteur. Thank you.”
  Overall simplification of regulation in the EU
• “(15:43:15 – 15:46:25): Thank you and thank you, commissioner, for your presentation and update. As for New Europe, we presented a position paper on the port strategy in the maritime industry. We support very much what you addressed. And it's important that we look closely to what are the new developments in the world and what happens in the world and how we adjust the proposals towards that. You referred to the IMO meeting last week. I was part of the EP delegation. And it was very interesting to see what all delegations really wanted to move forward. And the conclusions showed that we make little steps, but at least there was some positive outcome towards a net zero system, although it has to be negotiated, of course. The main questions that we got from the delegations was that we wouldn't double tax, and we wouldn't have a double system. And I think it's important that we acknowledge that that shouldn't be the case because that was a hurdle that a lot of delegations discussed with us. So hopefully, you can react on that. I think as parliament, we should really look for one solution in that sense if there's a clear international regulation. When it comes to the strategy that you proposed and you gave an update on maybe something on the defense and decarbonization side. When we look at the repair yards, which are still very active in Europe, I mean, we know a lot of the production is also outside Europe, but especially repair and in some specialty yards, we have our own production sites as well. And when it comes to decarbonization events, we see that the partnerships on the zero emission waterborne transport was a good initiative of public and private innovation. So is there a way that we can scale up that position? Do you see any possibilities for that? And when it comes to security, we are looking also to, of course, sufficient military mobility investment, not only from rail and road, but also on the waterway system. So maybe you have some comments for that. When it comes to ports, you rightfully say so that it's also energy hubs. So this is something that we really have to look into how ports can, in that sense, protect themselves from growing threats of hybrid attacks and drones. And are there any insights already in how we can work with the ports in building these capabilities? And when it comes to the energy side, we also have to look at the grid and permitting. And I think these are some of the topics that we are addressing in some other files as well. But, hopefully, we can find your support in that. So thank you very much.”
  Decarbonisation of maritime transport
• “Thank you. And thanks to Minister Birchgrove for the answers on the single market and simplification. Maybe one question in regard to that topic. The Commission mentions in their single market strategy that the principle of 1 in 27 out should be the guiding principle in the single market. And could the Minister say whether or not he sees that the member states. I feel the same urgency, how they how he would perceive that it would be possible to line up the member States in this regard. And if there are any sectors where the Danish presidency wants to start.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Europe has started taking initial steps to its own independent industry for sustainable fuels. The Sustainable Plant Transport Investment Plan will be mobilizing €2.9 billion for before 2027. However, that's a drop in the ocean compared to the 100 billion necessary before 2035. As synthetic fuels come onto the market, we shouldn't forget biofuels. They are an essential part of the mix if we are to ensure that we make fuels more sustainable. Complying with the EU fuel, aviation and maritime regulations. That's in line with the current biofuel strategy, which recognises a long term role for these fuels. Fuel producers need certainty. They need legal certainty and clear market signals. In Rotterdam, producers have shown that they're willing to invest, but without certainty ongoing projects are being suspended or abandoned. This means we have to quickly develop mechanisms which will ensure that buyers and producers are able to work together and to reach a deal under ETS. Only in this way can we ensure that the fuels we need in Europe will actually be produced in Europe. Thank you.”
  Biofuels (RED II)
• “Thank you. President. Commissioner. A strong internal market is a good foundation for any progress to be made, and is the way to survive the coming trade war. And it's only if we operate as a single bloc. As a single market, will we be strong. The competitive compass that's just been presented has to contribute to this, and it lays down important points. But speed is of the essence. You mentioned a number of industries. I'm very happy to hear that. But the clean industrial deal needs to be implemented. What can the European Commission do to increase the rate of implementation with the member States, not just with Germany and France? As a recent colleague just said, the drastic reduction of red tape is important for SMEs. Think SME first. If we're having legislation and we want to increase the number of the amount of innovation, then SMEs are essential and it's important what is important, what you're doing. We have to make sure that we're helping innovation, sustainable products, technology. And that's the only way we can save our competitiveness.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Europe is spending billions not to support our businesses we are making rules barriers but we also think nationally we have twenty seven member states and we're trying to make it one market. If we look at business for example that's specialized in people who like to paint as a hobby there are twenty seven different stickers that they need for different packaging this is bad for businesses. If you have a single market road map we need to have fewer rules make it easier for SMEs we they can't negotiate like SMEs we need to give this power to our SMEs but the question is to the council how can we get this from the member states and the commission how can we ensure that we have the same rules. That's what we want to do as Renew we want to ensure that the Renew group is that the single market is a real driver for growth thank you.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Thank you. It's unfortunate that the European economy is not as strong as it could be. It really is a shame that we are not making full use of our internal market. Hence the importance of continuing to work in this area. And I see that the Commission is proposing measures but simplification. The terrible ten. That's not enough. Yes, it's a package, but there are, in my opinion, other ways to make things simpler and to avoid this fragmentation in these divergences. The Commission has tools based on I And on artificial intelligence without mentioning things like ChatGPT. The Commission could certainly use member states tools as well. Ai would allow for a real analysis, allowing us to see what the differences are between member states. I'd like to know whether the Commission is making use of these kinds of tools, and if not, I would encourage them to. It would also be interesting for the Parliament to understand where the differences exist between member states.”
  Overall simplification of regulation in the EU
• “Yes. Thank you. Um, maybe in a tradition to what have been said, especially, uh, maybe the the scaling up of bio manufacturing, how that can be facilitated. That would be a question. And, um, uh, especially on the, uh, cellular agriculture and, um. Uh, how do you call it? Sorry. Um, the the food supply chain. Um, what can be done to a more nutrient? Uh, um, um, technological matter. And I'm not only talking about NGOs, but it's in general, um, where the commission is looking for for new technologies on the food.”
  EU policy on lab-grown meat
• “Sustainable biofuels are an important part in our European energy mix, and we should make it a lasting competitive advantage across Europe. Significant investments are being made in scaling up sustainable biofuels for maritime, transport and aviation alike. For our energy independence, it is very important that we make sure that we continue on that. But our first movers are facing headwinds. There's no there's no certainty beyond 2030 for transport without an extension. Investment will dry up. And when we need it the most to meet our 2040 climate goals. So I have two questions for you, you, Commissioner, when we will see an extension of the Renewable Energy Directive on the mandates and the Commission promised lead market policies for early movers in biofuels in the competitive compass when we will finally see them. Thank you so much.”
  Biofuels (RED II)
• “Thank you president. When I visit business in the Netherlands, I hear the same thing over and again. Ambition in it is there in entrepreneurs, but they get drowned in red tape. Europe wants to be stronger and more streamlined and have less red tape. That means we can't make projects wait years and years to get their permits. We can see in the Netherlands if this happens, we've got we're at full capacity at our grid and yet we can't get anything done. So I'm going to work on new rules for the grids with a very clear point. We have to make permitting simpler and quicker, and that means we're going to have to take choices, make choices. We need to make sure that cleaner electricity will lead to less emissions. We need to make sure that positive projects should not be held up as a result. Of course, we can work on renewable energies, but if we want cleaner energy, we want to stop opposing projects and start building. Thank you.”
  EU policy on permitting for renewable energy projects
• “Thank you. It's unfortunate that the European economy is not as strong as it could be. It really is a shame that we are not making full use of our internal market. Hence the importance of continuing to work in this area. And I see that the Commission is proposing measures but simplification. The terrible ten. That's not enough. Yes, it's a package, but there are, in my opinion, other ways to make things simpler and to avoid this fragmentation in these divergences. The Commission has tools based on I And on artificial intelligence without mentioning things like ChatGPT. The Commission could certainly use member states tools as well. Ai would allow for a real analysis, allowing us to see what the differences are between member states. I'd like to know whether the Commission is making use of these kinds of tools, and if not, I would encourage them to. It would also be interesting for the Parliament to understand where the differences exist between member states.”
  Artificial Intelligence
• “Thank you so much. Thank you. Commissioner. Um, I'm particularly interested in the non prize criteria in public procurement that you mentioned. Um, especially also search criteria, uh, in the product legislation, legislation for sectors like low carbon steel. You mentioned the idea of developing a label for the carbon intensity of industrial products. So can you explain a little bit more on how you see that and how it's going to be aligned with the climate and sustainability targets and, uh, how it can not be a burden for businesses, especially SMEs. And when it comes to the demand creation, you mentioned also something about that for low carbon or circular products. What other ways are you exploring besides public procurement?”
  Product passport
• “Explanation given by the panel. Um, the as we are discussing, uh, these kinds of systems as book and claim, but we see in the regulations that we're working on the refuel EU, the Renewable energy directive, as you already mentioned, and the EU ETS. I mean, these are three, uh, frameworks, three reporting systems. So what maybe that's a question for Mr. Berg and Madam Liu, but maybe others of the panel. What would be, from your practical experience, would be one of the biggest regulatory traps for us as lawmakers, uh, that we should fix if we would be introducing the book and claim compared to the three regulations that are there and maybe, um, from the panel as well. Uh, do you see any opportunity where we could go for a system that would in the end, also be international? Internationally accepted? I know it's difficult, but I just came from last week from the IMO, the maritime organization, and we see gradually some small steps towards an international framework. So maybe a response on that. Thank you.”
  Decarbonisation of maritime transport
• “Thank you chair. As renew we are very much uh, we see that public procurement is very important, that we want to have it become more simpler, faster and more accessible to the European companies. I mean, this has shown also by the initiative, initiative report of the Parliament. Um, in renew, we also see the empowerment of SMEs as an important, uh, element digitalization, less duplication of data. I mean, many things have been said by previous speakers, but also to create more opportunities to buy locally, regionally. So my questions would be in in addition to the answers that we already heard on certain questions, how can the EU preference be designed in a way that strengthens our strategic autonomy? What we want therefore, by European, as the Commission is also proposing, probably without restricting our own companies or closing their access to the global markets, I think this is an important element to take into consideration. And the second question would be can sustainability and innovation criteria be embedded in procurement without increasing the administrative burden, especially for the SMEs, and on the opportunities for buying local um, there was some discussion on the threshold. I know the WTO rules. So it was it is difficult in that sense. But would there be a way to, uh, on sustainability? Ability and if there's enough competition in the region, if you can be transparent on that, that you can have a regional tender or something, would that be any possibility there? Thank you.”
  "Buy European" provisions
• “Thank you. Chair. Very important topic and extremely important that the right choices are made to push towards absolute prohibition. Because FAS is getting in our water and food. Looking at innovation. Absolutely important as well to find alternatives and replacements. That's encouraging. And we need to also be very careful that essential products and applications can still be can still use FAS medical devices, etc.. Of course, we shouldn't go too quickly on that front. Obviously we need to phase things out. We can see that a lot of permits are still going through at local level for long term permission when industry asks for that. So my question is, how can you, as the Commission, give the breadth for the local authorities to carry out a revision so that the renewal of the permits can be done in a certain way, as is required? Thank you.”
  PFAs
• “Colleague, Commissioner, colleagues. I speak on behalf of many entrepreneurs in Europe, certainly Dutch entrepreneurs who complain constantly about the excessive complexity and bureaucracy of the administration. Here in the own initiative report, we are pleading for simplification, for flexible rules which will facilitate innovation and growth. This will also facilitate targeted investment and better price quality relationship. It will promote sustainability and safety and innovation. Good quality choices cost much less than bad ones. And I certainly think we should be prioritising the long term sustainable future. We need to support European industry too. We should be starting locally with a targeted focus on our local industry and helping them by dismantling our bureaucracy and promoting European preference, particularly in strategic sectors. This is absolutely of paramount importance. We need to ensure that we are supporting our industry rather than driving it out. This will also help our internal market and will in turn ensure that we are autonomous and strong as a European Union. Thank you. **Nicolae ȘTEFĂNUȚĂ @Chair: I give the floor to Mr. Clausen.”
  Overall simplification of regulation in the EU
• “They tell us that we have to choose between a strong financial situation, a strong economy or a proper climate policy. But that is not true. The green transition is the prerequisite for our competitiveness. We must expand green energy so that companies and consumers can benefit from lower energy prices. We must create stable, a stable framework so that businesses know that it pays off to make green investments, and we must make it more attractive to invest in green solutions. Unfortunately, the commission is doing the opposite. They are rolling back solutions that focused on sustainability, and they, by doing so, punish those companies that had made green investments and say this is a benefit to those who hadn't done anything. This is not good for our companies and it's not good for the environment and the climate either. We have a choice. Should we carry on with the green transition, or should we follow the American example and just focus on short term profit and not care about the environment? At present, it seems like the commission is choosing the wrong road forward because sustainability and a green transition is the best way of creating future European competitiveness.”
  Energy (green transition)
• “Thank you. The commissioner said something about nuclear energy. Very important topic to have that also in the decarbonization strategy. Maybe a little bit more in depth. The small modular reactors, the Smrs, are also a possibility to make sure that it is a viable solution for energy in industrial clusters and near data centers, which we need also for our digital transition. So how does the commissioner think about the SME hours, and how can we make that speed up the technology and support that? And when it comes to industrial clusters, you also mentioned hydrogen, of course, but also the importance of industrial clusters. And to make sure that they make a speed transition to green energy. But we need those clusters for our competitiveness of our own industry. So where do you think that the urgency can be shown in that area?”
  Nuclear energy