misclassified/meps_speeches huggingface dataset:
Impact on the 2024 EU budget of increasing European Union Recovery Instrument borrowing costs - Own resources: a new start for EU finances, a new start for Europe (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-05-08

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, I have to say I’m extremely happy that 78 years after the end of the Second World War, I came across the French border and I’m discussing now a common European debt instrument. That is a huge, let’s say, satisfaction for me as a federalist and as a speaker of the pan-European party. 
The instrument has been a huge success if we look at the fact that we were able to invest ourselves out of the corona pandemic and that we as the EU have shown that we can be a stable borrower. So I think we have to say this first, but obviously more needs to be done. We need a European finance minister in order to actually organise the own resources taxes that would make us independent at a federal level. 
Obviously, we also need to make the RRF, the Corona recovery fund, a permanent tool that would allow us to implement reforms and push for investments whenever it’s needed.
Impact on the 2024 EU budget of increasing European Union Recovery Instrument borrowing costs - Own resources: a new start for EU finances, a new start for Europe (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-05-08

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  Frage nach dem Verfahren der „blauen Karte“. – Herr Körner, es sind ja spannende Ausführungen, die Sie da gemacht haben. Was ich mich schon frage, ist: Wenn Sie sich jetzt mal wirklich den Aufbaufonds anschauen und wir gesehen haben, dass es tatsächlich keinen Bankansturm gab, dass keines der europäischen Länder tatsächlich in irgendeine Schuldenfalle gerannt ist und wir es geschafft haben, möglichst mit einem höheren Wirtschaftsniveau wieder herauszukommen, hat es sich nicht doch eigentlich gelohnt, diesen Aufbaufonds zu machen und hier auch die Schulden aufzunehmen?
Decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations: Long-Term Residents (A9-0145/2023 - Damian Boeselager)  (vote)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-04-20

  Damian Boeselager,  rapporteur. – Madam President, I think we can see that the colleagues from the far-right managed to get a lot of speaking time to spread their poisonous agenda, nativist agenda on migration.
But what I have to say, what surprises me is that they didn’t open actually all the laws, because my law is not part of the asylum pact. This law is part of the talent and skills package. It’s about attracting international talent to Europe. So I do not understand why you challenge this, because this is actually about the fact that we are losing workforce: 50 million people over the next 30 years.
Our start-ups, our hotels, our companies need talent. We need to find ways to be more attractive. This bill actually allows permanent residents to be able to work all across the European Union.
When you come as a migrant to the EU you don’t face one labour market, you face 27 markets. And even under Trump, the US was more attractive to international talent than the EU. Why? Because if you get fired in New York, you can find a job in San Francisco. When you want to find a new job, when you work in Sofia or Berlin, you have to go through the whole procedure of getting a visa again.
So let’s vote in favour of this bill. I thank my shadows and I thank you for the strong support for this bill.
Question Time (Commission) - Legacy of the European Year of Youth
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-04-18

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, thank you very much for giving me the speaking time. I have a very quick question regarding the fact that, obviously, the closer you get to death, the more you decide about the future, which is just a fact due to the demographics that we are currently facing.
So I was wondering, in regards to more hard power for youth, would you support a voting age of 16, as we’ve also asked for in the electoral law act from the European Parliament? And what do you generally think in terms of allowing younger people to participate, not only in elections but also when it comes to standing as candidates for these elections?
The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-04-18

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – Mr Benifei, I was just wondering how you see the reactions and the effects of the state of emergency that was declared in Italy and on the overall debate on migration within the country.
The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-04-18

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, I have to say, I’m still amazed by this debate because it should be about saving lives, but instead we repeat our points about the asylum system. I think what’s clear is that we currently let people die in the Mediterranean. We let them die by ordering container ships and fisher boats to stand by and wait, we let them die by criminalising and jailing those who want to pull them out of the water, we let them die by systematically funding Libyan coast guards that bring them back to their man-made hells, where they face exploitation, rape and murder.
Colleagues, it has been said, but we have to say it again: we need state-funded, state-led search and rescue missions. We need a truly European system of solidarity, where we also allow for disembarkation across Europe. And we need to stop scandalising migration because this actually just drives the points for the far right as we can see now. The real solution is to find a European common asylum system, because otherwise we will delegitimise the European Union as a whole and we need to stand up to our values.
Data Act (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-03-14

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, dear Commissioner Breton, dear Pilar, dear colleagues, more and more devices – windmills, ships, aeroplanes, paper-cutting machines – are connected to the internet. It’s the internet of things, after all. But who can have access to the non-personal data that these devices produce and who is allowed to share it with others? That is what the Data Act is about: deciding who should have access to what kind of data coming out of connected devices.
That’s why I think this law is actually right up there with GDPR and the Digital Services Act when it comes to the importance for the European digital economy. I think overall we have risen to the occasion, and here I want to explicitly thank Pilar and all the other colleagues for the very good cooperation that actually helped us improve the Commission’s proposal.
Let me give you two examples of where I think we definitely improved the proposal. First, we put the user, the owner of the connected device, back into the centre. They can decide who they want to engage in contracts with and who they want to share the data with.
Second, we created incentives for both the user and the data holder to share data on data markets. And that’s really the core. We need liquid data markets so that new cool startups can come use this data, connect it and build new ideas and applications.
However, there’s one point where I don’t think we got the balance correct, and that is what kind of data can be shared. Here, we gave a million excuses to the data holder to not share data. Trade secret protection, security settings, non-compete provisions, complex algorithms; we made the list so long that the Data Act is in the risk of becoming a data suppression act, allowing data holders to basically not share data. That’s short-sighted protectionist policy. We need to make sure that in the next step, when we negotiate with the Council, we have the maximum amount of data to be shared with the user who is actually producing the data with its use. So let’s fight for that.
REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-02-13

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, the EU’s reaction to the corona crisis was, in hindsight, quite impressive. It brought us the Recovery Fund, led to coordinated vaccine production and ultimately made sure that no EU country fell significantly behind. I’m therefore a big fan of the Recovery Fund, I’m a fan especially also because it basically conditioned all spending on green and digital investment and made sure that not a single euro would go into projects that harm the environment.
But now I have to admit that the recent reaction I don’t find that impressive. To diversify from Russian gas, we are now subsidising private companies with public money to build LNG terminals and gas pipelines. We fought hard to limit these potential spendings in oil and gas, and I ask the Member States to make sure that they do not spend any dollar in these industries. 
I think also, if I look now at the newest ideas of State aid, there’s again the idea of potentially allowing gas and oil companies to benefit, and I would just repeat once again that innovation and competitive power come from good institutions and good competition and not by weakening State aid and furthering gas and oil.
Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in European Parliament elections - Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in municipal elections (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-02-13

  Damian Boeselager,  rapporteur. – Madam President, thank you, colleagues, thank you also, Commissioner, for the positive words. Just one quick word upfront to our colleagues from the far right. I think you’ve still not really understood history because nations were created to overcome smaller units called kingdoms and dukedoms, and back then being a nationalist was being for progress. And I think you really misunderstood the concept of progress. 
When I started thinking about the theory of democracy, basically when I started building the movement, I heard very often that people don’t really care about the theory of democracy or voting. And I do think that’s absolutely wrong. I think people care very much if they exercise their freedom to move across borders and then are deprived of the democratic rights. I think people care a lot if they’re trying to vote or stand as a candidate and they can’t do that because the voting booth is not accessible. I think people care very much if their vote is unjustly stolen because of unjustified thresholds. I think they care very much if candidates don’t have the chances to present themselves. 
So, colleagues, democracy is fragile and I think we should really use every opportunity to create trust in democracy, to improve our democracies, and ensure that we strengthen it with all our power. And so I’m very happy that we take this step here now, also as a step towards better democracy, against autocracy and for our common European values.
Following up on measures requested by Parliament to strengthen the integrity of European institutions (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-02-13

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, it has been two months, two months since bags of cash were confiscated. Since then, multiple of our colleagues, people who we work with, people who make laws or who have made laws for all Europeans have been jailed. Every household across the European Union knows about this. But there is a second scandal. And the second scandal is that we haven't done anything since then. Nothing has happened. What have we done? We have written resolutions. We have a new task forces. We have working groups for transparency, working groups for the rules of procedure. But we haven't tangibly changed a thing. This is, for me, a second scandal. 
We need to act now and we need to get back the trust now. We need to win back trust now by implementing the changes we all know. Further protection for whistle-blowers. cooling-off periods for MEPs, stringent transparency on conflict of interests and financial declarations, biting sanctions. But also transparency on every meeting that every one of us has, no matter the capacity, with lobby groups and interest groups. This is simple. Let's win back trust now, let's win back trust for the European Parliament.
Following up on measures requested by Parliament to strengthen the integrity of European institutions (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-02-13

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – Mr Engerer, I very much agree with your idea of having transparency in all meetings that all MEPs have. I was wondering what you think about the transparency on staff meetings. So for assistants, but also for the administration.
Union Secure Connectivity Programme 2023-2027 (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-02-13

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, colleagues, Commissioner, I just wanted to also chime in here one second, because as a former negotiator of the European Space Programme, it obviously makes me happy to see that we are taking the successive steps to actually make this European moonshot a reality. 
We all know that we can try to save old industries, curb state aid and really try to preserve what’s already there, but I think what’s much more fascinating is to build on the innovative capacity of the European Union. We have amazing start—ups in the space industry, and I’m very happy that you also mentioned the downstream commercialisation. If we make data available, if we make the internet available, what kind of opportunities, possibilities do we have for new bright minds across Europe to actually make use of that and make us competitive by new ideas, by new frontiers, that we can obviously best see in space?
One-minute speeches on matters of political importance
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2023-02-13

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, so I asked an artificial intelligence to tell me how to regulate artificial intelligence in Shakespearean English and here is what it said, ‘Good people all, lend me thine ears. A tale of import I bringeth here, of something great that cometh nigh, an age of AI that dost defy. It hath the power, and speed as well, but also doth bring a weighty tale to tell. We cannot stand idle and let it be, but must regulate it, lest it harm thee. Regulation we need of this device, to guide its course and set the right prize. It must not bring bias to the fore, nor infringe upon our rights, that’s more. Transparency must be its guiding light, and accountability with all its might. And not just some, but all shall gain. Equality and fairness shall not be in vain. So let us act with heart so true and regulate AI as we ought to do. It is not a hindrance, but a path made clear, to make progress sustainable and bring good cheer.’
Thank you very much. I think it’s very insightful into how AI works.
The humanitarian situation in Ukraine due to Russia’s attacks against critical infrastructure and civilian areas (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-12-15

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, yesterday we celebrated the brave people of Ukraine and at the same time there were drone attacks in the middle of Kyiv, in the city centre. I was myself in Kyiv this summer and I fell in love with the city and with the people who are trying to live a regular life despite the constant attacks from the air. 
But behind their remarkable resilience, there’s a huge and immense tragedy, with attacks on households, families and children at any given point in time. So we must do three things. The first one is we need to look at our sanctions and see if they are economically biting Putin at this very moment and instantly. Second, we need to invest not only with public sector but also with private sector money in the areas of Ukraine that are currently safe with the help of war insurances. And thirdly, we need to make sure that our weapons deliveries are actually working from all our countries, including Germany, with the tanks that are needed. 
I think we have a chance now with a sanctions package to also sanction political parties and all their party members to make sure Russians have a choice: leave the parties that are pro-war or face sanctions.
The European Year of Youth 2022 Legacy (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-11-24

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, this week we celebrated the 70th birthday of the European Parliament, which, by the way, is also the average age of a conservative politician in this House. I am obviously joking, but I have to tell it to all of us. We have to be honest. If you listen to the Beatles, the Foo Fighters or Limp Bizkit, you’re not young anymore. If the people that go clubbing over the weekend are half your age, you’re not young anymore. So the reality and the funny thing about an ageing societies is that if you’re older, you outvote the young or, to say it a bit differently, the closer you are to death, the more you decide about the future. This obviously leads to absurd situations where you have a German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, campaigning as a full campaign promise to never touch pension schemes. That’s a great strategy if you want to get the old ones.
A year of youth won’t change these structural issues. And so we have to ask ourselves, what can we actually do? I think what would really help is to actually give voting rights to 16-year-olds and also to ensure that every 18-year-old across this continent has the right to stand as a candidate for elections. We should prioritise the issues that will have a longer-term effect, which means we should not concentrate too much on the short term. The longer-terms are the ones that will actually affect the people who are young now or that are still to be born. That does definitely include the climate.
And then I think as parties, as politicians, we need to make a step, an extra effort, to talk to young people more and to basically show them that it’s more fun to be here to fight against oil and gas than to throw processed food at paintings.
The need for a European solution on asylum and migration including search and rescue (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-11-23

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, Maite has just said it has been seven years since we started with the first proposal – since you started with the first proposal on the common European asylum system. And since then, year by year we have been discussing and not much has happened. We have failed more or less to come up with such a system. And every day the right—wingers in this House are very, very happy about this because they can instrumentalise this to grow.
And we have seen this. How did Lega get big? How did the AfD get big? How did Marine Le Pen get big? It’s all by capitalising on the fears of migration. This, for me, was one of the reasons of founding a European movement, because I feel that we have not found a system to actually take decisions to solve this issue. And what happens instead is that we have a system of basically deterrence by suffering. We fund Libyan coastguards, we fund billions for border controls, we criminalise NGOs, but we have not found a solution yet.
So I would urge you once again, please set up a European search—and—rescue mission. Please ensure that we have mechanisms to embark asylum seekers and please make sure that maritime law is upheld and NGOs are safeguarded.
Assessment of Hungary's compliance with the rule of law conditions under the Conditionality Regulation and state of play of the Hungarian RRP (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-11-21

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, after three years in politics, I think I have identified the real big threat for humanity: it’s unhinged, uncontrolled men. Uncontrolled individual men who somehow lost it because of their ego, their delusional narratives, their hunger for power, their narcissistic need to feel important. They are the real problem. We have seen it with Donald Trump in the US. We have seen it in China quite recently. We have seen it in Qatar with the Ayatollahs in Iran and with Putin in Ukraine. Uncontrolled men can be deadly.
And sadly, Viktor Orbán, in his own way, is heading in a similar direction. He is unchecked by the media. He is unchecked by the justice system, which he controls. He is unchecked by his party, who would never vote him out of power. He is unchecked by the opposition, who he threatens. And he’s unchecked by the Hungarian people who he lies to, blatantly.
However, Orbán does know that you, Commissioner, could actually rein him in by cutting the funds that oil his corrupt machine. And that’s why he’s blackmailing today. But this time he has gone too far. His blackmail is too outrageous and too dangerous. Today he’s vetoing the NATO membership of two EU countries, effectively putting the citizens at risk. He’s vetoing sanctions against Russian oligarchs. He’s vetoing the 18 billion for Ukraine that they need so urgently. And he’s vetoing the global minimum tax on Apple and co., depriving us of better schools and of higher pensions.
So, Commissioner, as we can see with Trump, the only language that these people understand is the language of hard power. Therefore, I ask you again, stand firm. Once Orbán reinstates the justice system, allows for fair elections, stops stealing EU cash, invites the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and stops this blackmail, we can talk about unblocking funds. Until then, stand firm.
REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-11-09

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioners, this week because of COP, climate dominates again the narrative and the minds of Prime Ministers and Chancellors, and that’s great. But obviously it’s not enough to just have speeches without clear action behind them. We need immediate and concrete action. And today, colleagues, and tomorrow is a point where we can actually make this happen.
Right here with REPowerEU we can ensure that we act on climate. How? We can make sure that there’s not additional money pumped into oil infrastructure. And we can do much better than throwing processed food at Rembrandts and Monets, because here we can actually vote on stopping billions of EU money flowing into the hands of the oil lobby and the oil industry. So this is where it counts and so I ask you, colleagues, please uphold the ban on any money flowing into oil infrastructure, because here today we have the chance to actually make this happen.
It is true that we need to ensure energy security, but don’t let yourselves be fooled: we need to be absolutely clear that the current energy crisis does not require investment in fossil fuel infrastructure that will be operational in five years. This does not help the current energy crisis, and we need to make sure that everyone understands that. Solving the current energy crisis means a fast transition to sustainable and renewable energy, and with our votes tomorrow we can make sure that this happens.
So thanks a lot for the good cooperation to the rapporteurs. Thank you for the positive negotiations that we had, and I look forward to the vote tomorrow.
Commission proposal for measures under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation in the case of Hungary (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-10-04

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, Commissioner, for three years I’ve been in this house now and every year the situation in Hungary got worse. For three years we have debates here, we have condemnations, we have strong resolutions. And what did Orbán do in this time? He circulated racist rhetorics about mixed races, he had unfair elections and – yes – he continued to steal money every day, European taxpayers’ money.
So now finally you have him. You have him because we gave you the power and the tools to actually hold him accountable. So I ask you now, once again: don’t push the conflict down the road to the RRF milestones and targets; make the money only available if there are actual reforms.
And as a final remark, I have to say, I think this shows us again that we need to elect the European Commission directly, that we actually reform the European Union so that we can hold our government accountable and actually push for change. Thank you very much.
Statute and funding of European political parties and European political foundations (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-09-15

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, it’s amazing that we have managed to write down that European political parties should follow the Treaties, but that should be a given. I think our lack of ambition when we look at this regulation is not sufficient. 
I’ve been trying to build a European party now for five years with 18 member parties in the different Member States. I can tell you that we need to rethink how we can make them visible and how we can ensure that they are transparent, so that we see where all the money comes from, especially if we have a war of disinformation running. This is not sufficient. The recast procedure, to be honest, didn’t allow us to really go into detail to find these ways of making the political parties more visible and being ambitious in our approach. 
We have heard a couple of examples where that could have worked, for example, the European political associations. We have new ideas in other legislation that we could have transferred into this one to allow for real European elections. Again, if I see what was happening with the Commission President yesterday proposing that we have a European Convention, we need to be more bold. We need to actually deliver on a European democracy.
Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-06-22

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, I was informed there would be additional speaking time because my colleague Ernest Urtasun cannot come, so it will be a bit longer. 
The Recovery Fund negotiations were extremely intense – and I can still feel parts of this mini—trauma when I see the colleagues here, because of all the all—night sessions that we spent – but they have also been extremely successful. For the first time ever, the European Union decided to take up common debt of such as size to invest us out of the Corona pandemic crisis and all the horrible social and economic effects that ensued. With a large majority in this House, we decided that we wouldn’t just build back in any way, but that we would build back better, that we would build back by fuelling the green transition, by fuelling the digital transition, by making sure that we have new standards for green investment when we do that, and that we also apply this new standard for green investment to cohesion funds. 
Since then, actually, a lot of remarkable things have happened. We have seen countries implement reforms that have not been tabled for years. We have seen a lot of countries with very good and innovative ideas of how to actually do this green and digital transition. And we have seen that and we have also fought for the fact that no euro should actually go into any form of spending that would harm the environment. 
That’s the positive side. But we have also obviously seen some issues and I think it’s really important that we point them out so that we can address them and also learn for the future. Some countries still did greenwashing, and I can name Germany with their hybrid cars is one example. Some Member States refuse to adhere to the necessary safeguards for our European taxpayers’ money when it comes to, for example, the rule of law. We have talked about this in the last session, obviously in the case of Poland, but also when it comes to corruption.
Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-06-22

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – So then I will wrap up very quickly. So what can we learn from this? I think we need more parliamentary oversight – that’s clear – so that such things can’t happen, like the Polish recovery plan. We need to make sure that we turn the tool into a permanent tool because we can see that new crises are coming up and we need a permanent fiscal architecture to be able to address the challenges that are coming. And we need to make sure that all conditionality, when it comes to the rule of law and green spending, are upheld. 
Thank you very much for that additional time.
The call for a Convention for the revision of the Treaties (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-06-09

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, I think the first thing that a reformed Europe should do is improve our train system. Colleagues, I want to take one second to thank those individuals who had the foresight to build this Union that we are currently debating in. I think it’s a huge achievement that we have this chance to debate here together.
But since the founding, a lot has changed and we have discussed it and heard it here. There are a lot of topics that we need to work on here together in the European Union so the ‘what’ has changed. But also we realise the examples of the ‘how’ that need to be improved. We have heard about the veto. I would add, in general, that we should also improve the Council as a whole, maybe abolish it and replace it with a more functioning body. 
But I just want to say one thing. This debate is not about left or right. It is not. It is about giving citizens the chance to choose what kind of direction their Europe should take. It’s about empowering a government that is elected by a parliament to make decisions and to be able to act. And if the citizens don’t like it, in the next elections they can vote this government out. So let us not make it about left or right. Let’s make it about daring more democracy.
The Commission's proposal for "Attracting skills and talent to the EU", particularly the Talent Partnerships with North African countries (topical debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-06-08

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, similar to Mr Oetjen, when I talk to SME founders or start-up founders, what I often hear is that they really need talent as one of the key success factors. Talent is a key success factor for European competitiveness, but we punch way below our weight. Why is that? 
Because we have 27 completely separate labour markets still. It’s not as attractive as if we had one big labour market because we have these harmful and hurtful narratives that we just heard again here in this House, and the very closed idea of what an identity can actually look like in Europe. And we have an insufficient equalisation of rights which needs to be strengthened. 
So I want to thank the Commission to bring forward this new package. I think there are very good elements in there when you look at the long-term residence directive. We need to increase European mobility. We need to make it easier to get access to a long-term residence permit. And I want to especially thank you for the talent pool, because this is an idea that I brought to the Commission two years ago, so I’m very happy that it has now been taken up. 
I think it’s really cool that international talent now has the chance to express their interest to work in Europe and then be matched with European employers. We have to work on that, make it interoperable with what the private sector is already proposing so that we can really attract talent to Europe and make Europe more attractive. So let’s get to work.
Parliament’s right of initiative (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-06-08

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, dear colleagues, you all have said – and I think it’s absolutely clear – that we need the right to initiative. 
I just want to make this very haptical. This whole House is built on the trust of citizens in their elected officials. We need to live up to this trust. That means that we can do two things that all parliamentarians should be able to do: one is that we are actually able to propose laws and also amend laws that already exist; the second is that we can vote for the European Commission. 
Then we can transfer the trust that citizens gave us into the actual representative democracy that we should be. I think tomorrow we have a good chance to start this process of Treaty change to bring all of these ideas of a better parliamentary democracy into the European Union. I’m very happy that we are going this way.
The rule of law and the potential approval of the Polish national Recovery Plan (RRF) (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-06-07

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, I would like to thank the Minister and President von der Leyen for coming here in person for this crucial moment for our Union. 
Madam President, I said this to Prime Minister Morawiecki when he was here, and it has to be absolutely clear. Our Union is based on Treaties, and treaties need enforcement by a functioning justice system. If we have political puppet courts in our Member States, the laws that we write here are worth nothing. Now, you caved in to the pressures and blackmailing of the Polish Government, and we have seen absolutely zero improvement on the Polish side when it comes to their justice system, and yet you still recommended the recovery plan for approval. 
The majority of this House, and some of your commissioners, believe this to be a huge mistake. We have little trust that the milestones you negotiated will prevent the Polish Government from sanctioning and dismissing judges, or flooding Polish courts with political appointees; I think this actually falls behind your own criteria. 
Colleagues, to ensure that the rule of law is upheld, we have to do two things. First, we need to ensure that our national governments do not approve the Polish recovery plan until the judgments of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights are implemented. Second, it needs to be clear that we will use all the tools available to us to make sure that the Commission does not approve any European taxpayers’ money, as you have said, flowing to Poland without real reforms taking place. And yes, this also includes the tool to force the Commission to resign. We have to ensure a Union where the Treaties are upheld and a rule of law is in place. 
So, Madam President, please do the right thing.
Artificial intelligence in a digital age (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-05-03

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, Executive Vice—President, dear colleagues, first of all, I also want to thank you for the great collaboration. I think we had long hours trying to figure out what the best use of AI in Europe is. 
But let me go one step back. When we hear AI, I think – and this is thanks to the movie industry – we often think of bots and of holograms of all of us, MEPs, of the Executive Vice—President to be just replaced by AI in this kind of futuristic scenario. But that’s not what AI really is about. In all seriousness, it’s about an objective function. It’s about probabilistic models, and very often our companies are still trying to grapple with what AI is about. So they’re making their way from a very analogue life to an AI—based business model. 
In this struggle, we see that we have some issues. For example, one is that there’s a strong tendency to market dominance, and that is just the case because you still need a lot of data to train your AI algorithms. I think Europe is trying to find its way in this struggle, and we’ve seen that if you give too much market dominance, there can be abuses of that. We need to find ways to counter that. And we have seen that, for example, maybe in the Chinese model, AI is used to control society. We have to also fight against that. 
So what can help us to make these steps correct? I think it’s crucial that we make our algorithmic function focus on human agency, and this has been said before. So we need to safeguard fundamental rights, but we also need to find markets concentration. That can be done if we enable our start—ups, our companies, to enter these markets so there’s no closed markets, and there’s no market dominance. I think this is a struggle that is worth fighting and that is also very much represented in the report. 
Let us continue the struggle, in the Data Act and all other files that are still being discussed in the AI world, so that we create a European way of looking at AI and make it possible for our companies to thrive.
The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-05-03

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – I just have a very simple question. I was here on Saturday and saw the conclusions, I also read the conclusions and my question is: why are you misrepresenting what’s in there, which is actually that we want to strengthen regional parliaments and that we want to strengthen cooperation between national and the European Parliament? 
So there’s nothing about abolishment of the national regional parliaments, so why are you misrepresenting the results?
The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-05-03

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, fellow Europeans, earlier today, Vladimir Klitschko, who is the mayor of Kiev, wrote that, for Putin, Ukraine is a provocation because it is a democracy. Democracy is a provocation for some people. And we can also see this, sadly, in this Chamber. So what do we have to do? We have to dare more democracy. That’s exactly what they fear. Let us dare more democracy. I said this also on Saturday at the conclusion and I say it now after we voted positively on the transnational list, we need to dare more democracy. 
If you look at the conclusions that all these citizens that actually dared more democracy came up with, you see that there’s a lot of very positive stuff in there: abolishing the veto, making the Council more transparent, calling it a Senate to make it a real second chamber, and giving more rights and powers to Parliament, including the right of initiative, budgetary powers and so on. 
So we need to seriously follow up on this. I am very happy that from the Constitution Committee we already requested to trigger Article 48, to trigger Treaty change, and I hope that the countries will follow up, but I also hope that we can follow up on all the other ideas that don’t need Treaty change.
(The speaker agreed to take a blue-card speech)
The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-05-03

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card reply. – So I think it’s very good that you made the effort to go out there. And I think it’s also okay to have a different vision of how Europe should go, which is a vision of where prime ministers and chancellors sit in backroom deals and battle all the deals out on how Europe should work. I just believe that we should fight and I’m fighting for a Europe, where you have a parliamentary democracy, where we can have these debates and where we can fill the government that can then be dis—elected if people don’t like it. I think this gives more voice to citizens also if they’re critical about different policies. But I’m having these conversations and I’m happy to see your study results as well.
The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-05-03

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – Apparently it’s my democratic right to ask questions, so I will make use of that. 
I wanted to ask you, if you, as an Italian running on a French list, believe there is something like a European identity?
Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-05-02

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – Paolo, there’s no animal like the EU, so you won’t find any comparisons in other systems. The second point, on bringing European citizens closer; you change nothing by just giving them a second vote. How can that bring citizens further away from the European Union the first time they can actually vote for a European party that you’re part of? And third, on the Spitzenkandidat, there is no system on this earth where the Spitzenkandidat is actually registered in the law. So this is in Germany – I don’t think in any other system – this is by practice, so why do you think that this is worse than, for example, the German system?
Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-05-02

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE),  blue-card speech. – My question is in regard to the European parties. I mean, how many of your voters really know the EPP? That’s my first question. And the second question is: if you don’t like the transnational list system, what is your idea of improving the European Union? Because we have already lost one Member State, the United Kingdom. We need to get more democratic. What’s your idea of improving the European Union?
Data Governance Act (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-04-06

  Damian Boeselager,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, I wanted to start by thanking Angelika Niebler for the very constructive cooperation that we had on this file. It was very nice working with you and very fact-based. That was exemplary. 
I think today’s vote shows that we have actually advanced quite far in our digital policy. You will hear that my voice is still a bit deep because I have jetlag from coming back from the US and talking about data policy to the different stakeholders over there. I realised how close we are to the sweet spot of personal data protection and still enabling innovation at the same time. This is built on the fact that we had a European success with saying that there is a philosophical right of your own data being your own, in a sense, of having that right.
Now, we need to transfer that to the industrial data space. We also need to get to a situation where the usage rights for industrial data are equally clear. The Data Governance Act is really helpful because it basically makes it possible to have neutral platforms and data intermediaries if you want data stock exchanges that you can trust and actually share and trade your data. And then, when we get to the data act, I think we have the obligation to ensure that basically we are now applying what we learned from GDPR to the industrial data space in clarifying who is able to trade co-generated data sets.
The whole idea behind this is that we can really unlock the innovation potential that we have in our start—ups and that we have in our industries with a lot of very innovative and new concepts and new business models that, as the Commissioner said, will create a lot of jobs.
Violations of right to seek asylum and non-refoulement in the EU Member States (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-04-06

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, I travelled to Greece recently and I saw – and have heard this before – that a systematic violation of the right to seek asylum in Greece is happening. I will try to outline it to you. Basically, since March 2020, no-one has been returned from Greece to Turkey, and that is Turkey’s fault. But just a year later, the Greek Government still imposed a law, which is the inadmissibility procedure or joint ministerial decree, which basically says that everyone who comes through Turkey, and who comes from Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan or Bangladesh, has to be returned to Turkey. But as I just explained, no one is being returned to Turkey. So this was, from the beginning, absolutely trying to stop the right to seek asylum. 
And so we have a Kafkaesque situation, where people are being told to go to police stations to be returned, to then ask Turkey whether they would take them, and Turkey doesn’t even answer this. Then the people are being told: okay, you have to wait for a year. They don’t have access to food; they don’t have access to accommodation. We really have to stop this. I ask the Commission to do something about this to guarantee the right of asylum in Europe.
The deterioration of the situation of refugees as a consequence of the Russian aggression against Ukraine (debate)
Speaker: Damian BOESELAGER (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Volt)
Date: 2022-03-08

  Damian Boeselager (Verts/ALE).   – Mr President, every morning when we wake to the live documentary of this terrifying war on social media, I feel helpless when I see the images of bombed streets, burning nuclear plants and lines of people fleeing. I feel helpless. But while our options within Ukraine are limited, our options for helping those who are fleeing the war are not. That’s why I wanted to thank you very much, Commissioner, for your swift action and for bringing all the countries together to grant legal protection so fast. And that’s why I want to thank everyone who’s opening their doors currently in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, but also all across the continent. 
But much more needs to be done and we have to adapt to the situation and every moment. So, I would ask you, Commissioner, to also ensure that everyone who’s fleeing is protected, no matter their skin colour or nationality – also the Russians and Belarussians fleeing their crazy tyrants. 
Even if we decide that some can’t stay, please make sure that they’re all covered by health protection so that they can go to the hospitals to tend to their mental and physical wounds after fleeing. And please ensure that we have a new approach to the European asylum system, so that we can learn from this humane reaction to the fleeing refugees, in our new asylum system.