Christophe BAY

Policy topics Christophe BAY is active on

What Christophe BAY has said (12)

• 2025-08-25 “E-003278/2025 Answer given by Mr Síkela on behalf of the European Commission The EU and South Africa (SA) have a Strategic Partnership 1 based firmly on democratic values and the respect for human rights, as exemplified by the recent EU-SA Summit, which resulted in the announcement of the Global Gateway Investment Package with SA 2 to which the Honourable Members refers. In this context, the EU and SA regularly engage in a dedicated human rights dialogue, whereby business and human rights, land rights and other relevant issues are steadily covered. In pursuit of partnerships with all third states, the EU follows the procedures that are outlined in the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) – Global Europe Regulation (Article 13 and 14) 3 . Applying a human rights-based approach to all interventions is an obligation enshrined in the NDICI – Global Europe Regulation (Article 8). The Financial Regulation 4 makes an explicit reference to the EU values, which comprise human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and the rights of minorities. It requires that the EU budget be implemented in full respect of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and the EU values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on EU. Democratic principles, good governance and transparency are embedded in all EU-funded projects and investments. The EU-Southern African Development Community Economic Partnership Agreement 5 in place foresees that neither partner can lower environmental or social standards to attract business or investment 6 . The newly signed Clean Trade and Investment Partnership 7 which focuses on creating trade and investment opportunities in clean supply chains provides also for civil society involvement in its implementation, thereby supporting labour and environmental standards. 1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=legissum:r12551. 2 https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/i40na1ze/published-8-eu-south-africa-joint-declaration.pdf. 3 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32021R0947. 4 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/2509?utm_source. 5 https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/content/epa-sadc-southern-african-development-community. 6 Article 9. 7 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_2755.”
  EU policy on African region
• 2025-03-18 “E-001138/2025 Answer given by Mr Brunner on behalf of the European Commission The report does not legitimise Islamism, nor does it equate the fight against Islamism with structural racism. The report presents findings on legislation with disproportionate impact on Muslim communities and persons.”
  EU policy on integration and ethnic, racial and religious discrimination · EU policy on Islam
• 2025-02-04 “E-000478/2025 Answer given by High Representative/Vice-President Kallas on behalf of the European Commission Human rights and democracy are a key element of EU-Algeria relations, enshrined in Article 2 of the Association Agreement 1 . The EU monitors developments and regularly raises its concerns on human rights and democracy with representatives of the Algerian government through open dialogue. On this basis, the EU has repeatedly, and at different levels, raised the case of Boualem Sansal 2 with the Algerian authorities with the objective to secure his release. In order to achieve this objective, continued dialogue still appears to be the most effective course of action. The EU remains committed to respecting, protecting and promoting the freedom of opinion and expression in its external action. The EU thus continues to protect and promote media freedom and pluralism, online and offline, and takes action to counter disinformation, including by raising public awareness. The EU recognises that writers and intellectuals can often face heightened risks in environments where freedom of expression is restricted. The EU contributes to the safety and protection of those exercising their freedom of expression through diplomatic actions, by supporting relevant media initiatives and by providing assistance via the EU human rights defenders protection mechanisms. Any decision on imposing EU restrictive measures (sanctions) is for the Council to make, acting in unanimity. 1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A22005A1010%2801%29# 2 https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/algeria-speech-high-representativevice-president-josep-borrell-arrest-francoalgerian-writer-boualem_en”
  EU-Algeria relations · EU competences on human rights
• “Thank you very much. There's been a lot of ups and downs in trying to adopt these safeguard clauses. Can I just remember, I remind you that we first had an attempt to push this through at the last plenary. This attempt Failed. Because it tried to ignore the rights of Parliament. The first of which is the right to amendment. And then there was a meeting urgently arranged by President Matthew. Thank you for that. To come up with a compromise. This compromise contains a number of advances. Nevertheless, we're a long way off where we need to be. And the reason for that is that, first of all, because this was a rush. And this is something that the agri committee just said. There was no consultation with farmers on the new provisions. And secondly, there's still a question outstanding. And that is the position of our South American partners when it comes to these new provisions which arise from the compromise and have therefore not been a subject of inclusive dialogue. As you were saying. So for all these reasons. We feel that we're at a bit of a crossroads. We've made some progress, but unfortunately there's still a long way to go in order to protect our farmers in a sustainable fashion. Thank you.”
  Trade relations with Mercosur
• “Madam president, Commissioner, today we're at a turning point for the trade future of Europe. The European Union is loyal to its own dogmas. It's pursuing blind unilateralism. Look at the Example of the free trade deal with Mercosur. For France, it's a catastrophe and we know about it. Our farmers are already strangled by ridiculous rules, and now they have to face unfair competition from Brazilian and Argentinian products, which are raised without the same environmental and health rules. Donald Trump has understood that the US is a big power and tariffs are a powerful lever. He has not hesitated to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China and on steel and aluminium. It proves that the US defends its own interests. Europe has always been the model. Pupil, full of fine sentiments, continues to open its doors to the rest of the world, hoping for a reciprocity that will never come. Trump is a challenge for the European Union at the moment in time. I'm not sure that we're intellectually up to this challenge. Well, let's face the truth. Tariffs. And once again, a tool of economic protectionism. So we should stop believing in this myth of a happy free trade. We need to look at specific industries and their needs. We have to refuse destructive multilateralism. We need to ensure that there is European preference for our companies, for our farmers and for our workers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.”
  Trade relations with Mercosur
• “President, the agreement signed by Mrs. von der Leyen requires us to accept a number of concessions to the advantage of the US. Taking tariffs off US goods And then we have 15% tariffs for European products. That is going to lead to disadvantage for the European market. And there's no serious guarantees of reciprocity and protection. All of this is happening in a perfectly well known context. The US has continued to use the tariff weapon. And what does the commission do faced with that? Well it comes up with commitments that weakens our situation, weakens our income from tariffs and weakens a number of our sectors. It's not so much the Trump administration that we should be pointing the finger at, but rather the lack of competence in the von der Leyen commission. We're being told that we have to accept that the concession in order to maintain the transatlantic relationship. But accepting doesn't mean caving in. Thank you.”
  EU-US trade relations
• “Monsieur, I was really taken aback. Director general, by what you said in your comments. In one point in particular, you said. There was the American taxpayers who were going to end up paying the price. But you seem to forget one key point here, that the increase in the customs duties are going to be accompanied by a reduction in federal taxes. Just to remind you of that. Now, the language used, I think, recalls for us the negative aspects of this agreement. I have got a question for you, which I think is important. Why Did we eliminate the customs duties on American industrial products? I just have a hard time understanding that. Thank you.”
  EU-US trade relations
• “President. President. The European Democracy Shield has been presented as Europe versus foreign interference and the spread of disinformation. But the European Democracy shield is like an electric chair to compare to a chair. These are procedures that are being imposed on people to silence people, to silence Anyone who wishes to speak out. It's basically about doing away with freedom of speech. But when asked who this is for, who this is against, the commission just puts in place this kind of digital dictatorship. Dsa to police social media, but also a kind of crisis response as a justification for encouraging some platforms over others and forcing platforms to modify their algorithms. But who's in charge? Who's in charge of deciding whether something requires action or not? Brussels no doubt. Fact checkers who are cherry picked and directed. This is about muzzling the people and we as patriots for Europe oppose it.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “(16:43:31 – 16:45:57): You very much. I think the point that we're looking at today is absolutely key. Artificial intelligence is not just innovation it's a technological challenge and perhaps the greatest we've faced in some time and it's only the start. When we look at the standards the calculation models that will really make up part of our sovereignty we can't allow artificial intelligence to become a new area of dependency technological industrial strategic dependency. As our rapporteur said the reality is simple if we look at semiconductors platforms etcetera they're really very much concentrated in several areas so if we do not react our companies are sensitive sectors will be held captive. So we need to go on the offensive in a constructive way. Let me go into four points if I may. First of all we need to look at protection of our know how so we need to have clear rules on data on sensitive technologies it's hard to talk about being open without security confidentiality cybersecurity and of course our raw materials. Second point is competitiveness. Artificial intelligence could become a dumping tool in terms of subsidies privilege access to data for example. And third point I think this is really key and it should be integrated into the report I don't think it's been gone into by our rapporteur but I do want to say something about this and it's the consequences on the labor market. It's important to realize that tens hundreds thousands of jobs may disappear within the EU because of these challenges. And then fourth point not create a policy that only benefits the very big companies SMEs need help simplification support access to solutions. So to conclude artificial intelligence is something to help us leverage competitiveness and also independence otherwise we will simply be creating more dependencies. Thank you.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• “Thank you. Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Jordan, for the, uh, presentation. Just one preliminary comment. First of all, you talked about the establishment of the task force, uh, as a great premier. Does that mean that prior to this, there was no monitoring Of of imports into the EU. That's my first question. And then my second point. Is that there might be some ambiguity. I believe, Mr. Director General, you talked about this taskforce having been set up following a possible transfer of Chinese imports from the US to Europe. But apparently you do not wish to target that threat, because we see that the Chinese figures are not in line with that. So how should we assess this increase on the Chinese side? And then finally. In Conclusion to monitor is good, but to act is better. So what is the commission doing in this case of significant significant import increases following the US customs policy? Thank you.”
  Trade relations with China
• “Thank you. Chair. I'll also speak French. Well, December's trialogue shows us once again that this very important file is getting away from us. And the safeguard mechanism. I won't come back to that as we see things. We think it's ineffective. Uh, we think it's, uh, won't be useful. I think this agreement is a bad agreement, in our opinion. And this safeguard clause, um, will not achieve what we're trying to achieve. The situation is clear. The European Parliament has referred this to the Court of Justice to ask for a legal opinion in relation to conformity of the agreement with the treaties. But we hear that the Commission is going to apply this, uh, provisionally. I think we are being treated with contempt by. Um Ursula von der Leyen. We cannot undermine our countries, our regions, our standards now that we have referred this to the, um, the court. There are legal doubts and we think that, um, Commission should respect the rule of law and the European Parliament, and it would be a mistake not to respect the European Parliament in this. Thank you.”
  EU Supervision of the Rule of Law
• “Merci. Thank you very much, Deputy Director General. Dear colleagues. The fifth annual report on screening of Foreign Direct Investment clearly shows that the 2019 regulation that's in force functions and is sufficient. As you have said, the figures speak for themselves in Four, there were around 3000 operations that were looked at, but only 1% were prohibited. There were also nine out of ten files were authorized. This shows that, uh, what the uh Nazionale had voted for previously does protect our interests. And same for the European cooperation. Uh mechanism. Uh, the majority was closed in phase one, which is proof that it's efficient and proportionate. So to conclude. It's important to have all of the member states as part of the screening mechanism. Within this context, the proposal of revision from the Commission looks to impose a uniform mechanism on all of the member states. Sir, and I think impinges, um, on some of the prerogatives of investments within the markets. So, um, Mr. Director General, perhaps you could explain to us, in light of your conclusions how this future regulation would be useful and why the current situation is insufficient, and how would you avoid, um, that the, uh, coordination instrument becomes just another tool of power for the European Commission. Thank you.”
  EU policy on screening foreign investment in strategic sectors and critical infrastructure