misclassified/meps_speeches_with_translation.csv huggingface dataset:
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-03-14
Debate: Implementation report on the Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU - The Windsor Framework (debate)

  Terry Reintke,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, dear colleagues, this Windsor framework is good news. It is good news for the people in Northern Ireland. It is good news for the people in the whole of the UK and it is good news for the people in the European Union.
And it shines a light on the value of trustful cooperation, something that was badly missing from the negotiations between the EU and the UK, at least from some people in the past. And in the aftermath of the announcement of the agreement, Rishi Sunak actually praised the unique position of Northern Ireland being part of the UK’s and the EU’s market.
And I can only congratulate him for the clarity and insightfulness of his words, because yes, indeed, being part of the EU single market makes you strong. It means more prosperity, it means less red tape and it means more freedom. And, if you ask me, if we are being honest, the whole of the UK should actually benefit from these advantages and not only Northern Ireland.
Colleagues, in a world where we see aggressive autocrats trying to take more power, it is important that democracies work together, and this agreement is a step into the right direction for that.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-02-15
Debate: One year of Russia’s invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

  Terry Reintke,  im Namen der Verts/ALE-Fraktion. – Frau Präsidentin, liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen! Ein Jahr nach der brutalen Eskalation des Krieges in der Ukraine ist absolut klar: Wir stehen fest an der Seite des angegriffenen demokratischen Staates Ukraine, und unsere Unterstützung – sei sie finanziell, sei sie politisch, oder sei sie militärisch – ist absolut sicher, auch wenn wir jetzt und gerade aus dem Mitgliedstaat, aus dem ich komme, immer wieder Stimmen hören, die versuchen, krude Narrative in diese Debatte zu streuen, um die öffentliche Diskussion zu zermürben.
Deshalb will ich einige Sachen mal klarstellen: Nicht Waffenlieferungen an die Ukraine verlängern diesen Krieg – Wladimir Putin tut das. Waffenlieferungen schützen die Ukraine vor ihrer Auslöschung und Millionen Menschen in der Ukraine vor Gewalt und Besatzung. Und genau wie der Hohe Repräsentant gesagt hat, Waffenlieferungen schließen absolut keine Verhandlungen aus. Ein Land in seiner Selbstverteidigung zu unterstützen bedeutet nicht, keine Diplomatie mehr zu wollen. Es bedeutet, internationales Recht zu schützen.
Und drittens – und ich finde es wichtig, das in der Debatte sehr klar zu sagen: Es wird kein Zurück zum Status quo ante geben, nicht mit diesem Russland. Die gesamte Sicherheitslage in Europa hat sich verändert, und eine neue Welt braucht neue Antworten und nicht die alte Leier.
Und deshalb: Anstatt sich von Faschos für Unterschriftensammlungen beklatschen zu lassen, wäre es jetzt an der Zeit – gerade an all die, auch aus Deutschland, die diese alte Leier von vor dem 24. Februar 2022 weiter singen –, endlich mal nach Riga, nach Warschau oder nach Helsinki zu fahren und nicht andere zu belehren, sondern da zuzuhören und endlich zu sehen, dass wir in einer neuen Welt weiterhin klar an der Seite der Ukraine stehen müssen.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-01-18
Debate: Terrorist threats posed by far-right extremist networks defying the democratic constitutional order (debate)

  Terry Reintke,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, in 2011 in Utøya and Oslo, 77 people were killed by a Nazi terrorist. In 2020 in Hanau, nine people were killed by a far—right terrorist. In 2022 in Bratislava, two queer people were shot coming out of a gay bar by a right—wing extremist. This list is far from exhaustive, and you all know it; hundreds of people have been killed by far—right extremists over the past years.
In December last year, security forces conducted one of the biggest anti—terror investigations in German history against an alleged far—right terror network trying to overthrow the constitutional order in Germany. Among the suspects, and I want to say this clearly, there was a member of the far right party AfD, and not just any member, but a former Member of the German Parliament.
These people planned to overthrow the democratic constitutional order in Germany. They are especially dangerous, because many of them have a lot of money, they have resources, and they have very good links to police and security forces, as well as to the justice system.
Let me be clear, colleagues, in the twenties and thirties of the last century, many conservatives and liberals in Germany made a fatal mistake. They believed that they could keep the far—right, the violence and the hatred for democracy, in check. They failed. You all know the outcome of this. We cannot let the same mistake happen again.
I must say that also here in this House, I see very dangerous tendencies to normalise the far—right, not least today, where a far—right candidate also received votes from democratic groups. Colleagues, we have to stand up to this far-right threat together, as democrats. These people are not playing. They are not making jokes. They mean it when they say that they want to overthrow our constitutional democratic order. We have to stop them.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-01-17
Debate: New developments in allegations of corruption and foreign interference, including those related to Morocco, and the need to increase transparency, integrity and accountability in the European institutions (debate)

  Terry Reintke,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, I think it is absolutely clear that we have to investigate until all facts of this scandal are on the surface, not only relating to Qatar, but also potentially other countries. But I think it’s also important that we already take the necessary steps that can be taken now, now. And I want to thank the President for coming forward with a proposal in this direction. I believe it is a good starting point, but some of the points will need to be added and maybe strengthened and sharpened a little bit.
First of all, and I think that this is really important, we owe it to the citizens to bring our deliberations in this House to light. And that is why we will need a special committee with a very clear mandate to make recommendations of what is necessary to fight against corruption and for integrity and transparency in this House.
Secondly, this institution needs better whistle—blower protection because people who bring misconduct and wrongdoing to light need to be protected and not punished.
Thirdly, we need a stronger and mandatory transparency register. This is also part of the proposal, but I believe that we have to bring transparency by including also third-country representatives and by enforcing the rules that we already have on transparency, better. We need to make the register mandatory while at the same time ensuring that we do not put people at risk like, for example, human rights defenders, by not granting reasoned and limited exceptions.
We have a big majority in this House supporting the establishment of an ethics body. But let us not wait until the Commission comes forward, let us already nominate our negotiators now so that the negotiations on the interinstitutional agreement can start as soon as possible.
And fifth, we have to be better in enforcing rules, and clearer defined sanctions will play a very important role in order to make that possible. For all this, we will need clear deadlines and very understandable procedures. And colleagues, I think many of you know, I really love this House, and it is one of the greatest achievements that we have come forward with in the history of the European Union, that we come together here as directly elected representatives of EU citizens. And I think because of this, because we love this House and because we want to protect it, we need to do everything possible right now.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2023-01-16
Debate: Order of business

  Terry Reintke (Verts/ALE).   – Madam President, colleagues, I could now defend our proposal because we think it’s the best, but I’m not going to do that. I think if it’s very important for the other groups to have this aspect of new developments added, that can be fine. But for us, it will be very important also to focus on integrity and transparency measures, so to have that definitely in the title. And if you would like to add the specific country names, I think that’s also fine for us. But we really want to focus on what do we do now and what kind of measures do we need to put in place to prevent things like this from happening in the future.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-12-13
Debate: Suspicions of corruption from Qatar and the broader need for transparency and accountability in the European institutions (debate) (debate)

  Terry Reintke,  im Namen der Verts/ALE-Fraktion. – Herr Präsident, liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen! Ich glaube, wir sind alle immer noch entsetzt über das, was da am Wochenende ans Tageslicht gekommen ist. Ich will mal meinen Vater zitieren, der gesagt hat: „Was für eine verdammte Scheiße, was sie da abgezogen haben.“ Ich glaube, das ist ein Zitat, das zeigt, wieviel Vertrauen zerbrochen ist.
Vertrauen lässt sich nur wieder aufbauen, wenn wir jetzt als Europäisches Parlament handeln. Deshalb werden wir sehr klar sein müssen, auch in der Entschließung, die wir verabschieden, was die Verurteilung der Taten angeht, was die Aufklärung angeht und was bessere Prävention angeht, und eine absolut kristallklare Reaktion auf Korruption und Fehlverhalten ist da absolut zentral.
Den ersten Schritt sind wir heute gegangen, indem wir Eva Kaili als Vizepräsidentin des Parlaments abgesetzt haben. Korruption muss weitgehende Konsequenzen haben. Punkt. Keine Diskussion.
Zweitens: Wir brauchen volle Aufklärung, einen Untersuchungsausschuss und natürlich volle Kooperation mit den belgischen Behörden. Denn wenn sich eins gezeigt hat, ist das, dass es eine fähige und unabhängige Staatsanwaltschaft in Belgien gibt.
Drittens – und ich glaube, das ist ein sehr wichtiger Teil dieser Aufarbeitung – weitergehende Maßnahmen für bessere Prävention. Ja, es gibt Dinge, die auch mit besseren Transparenzregeln nicht vollends zu verhindern sein werden. Aber trotzdem ist es wichtig, dass wir jetzt auf volle Transparenz setzen, zum Beispiel die Aufnahme von Drittstaaten in das Lobbyregister oder eine unabhängige Ethikbehörde.
Einige Kolleginnen und Kollegen werden jetzt sagen: nichts überstürzen, keinen Aktionismus. Aber ich möchte mal ganz klar sagen: Es gibt viele Regeln, die wir als Europäisches Parlament bereits mehrheitlich hier im Plenum beschlossen haben, wie zum Beispiel die Ethikbehörde. Wir müssen jetzt darauf bestehen, dass diese Regeln endlich umgesetzt werden. Die Debatte ist nämlich nicht neu, sondern gerade nur brandaktuell. Mir ist es wichtig, dass wir bei diesen Entscheidungen immer das Bild der Bürgerinnen und Bürger mit im Blick haben. Dieses Parlament muss das verlorene Vertrauen wieder aufbauen, und dafür müssen wir zusammenarbeiten.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-12-12
Debate: Statement by the President

  Terry Reintke,  Co-Chair of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, I can only echo what the colleagues have been saying. These are dark days for European democracy. I can tell you personally, colleagues, that I have always been a very proud member of this Parliament. To me, it’s the honour of my life to be elected to this Parliament. In the last days, honestly, this pride has seriously been shaken.
I myself know that most of us here are working hard, that we are honest and sincere in representing the EU citizens, but now I’m actually thinking about the millions of EU citizens who are struggling right now – the people who are lying awake at night who do not know how to pay their bills, who do not know how to get through the next month and what they had to see over the past days. This puts shame on all of us here in this Parliament.
We have to be absolutely clear: this Parliament, after what has happened, cannot do business as usual. We cannot stop at just thoughts and prayers. We have to be absolutely clear. We have to act. I want us to act, as the colleagues have said, unitedly, as pro—European Democrats.
But we have to act, and we also have to put something in writing to be clear about what we want, because we want a full inquiry into this matter. Everything has to come to the surface right now because, as people have said, trust has been broken. We have to have a dedicated position in the EP Bureau that is working on these reforms, that is working on anti—corruption, and we need to have more far—reaching measures, like, for example, the reform of the lobby register, as well as an ethics body that can make sure that we do everything in our power to prevent something like this in the future.
Indeed, colleagues, the trust of citizens has been broken, and to my understanding, rightfully so. So let us do everything we can to bring everything to light and to prevent something like this from happening again in the future. This is about more than just us. This is about protecting this House. This is about protecting democracy. This is about protecting the European project. So let us do all we can – we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our citizens.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-11-23
Debate: Eliminating violence against Women (debate)

  Terry Reintke,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, colleagues, in patriarchal societies, violence against women has always been widespread. It is not only based on the belief that women matter less, it is actually based on the assumption that women are not fully equal and self—determined human beings, that they somehow need to be disciplined to be controlled. We are battered. We are raped. We are abused. Our choices are being restricted because we do not matter enough. But also because patriarchy tells us that we had to, that we have to be kept in check. That includes also the denial of our right to choose over our own bodies. 
Forcing a woman to go through with a pregnancy against her own will is a form of violence against women. That is true for the ten—year—old rape victim who had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion. That is true for the 31—year—old Savita, who died in Ireland in 2012 after being denied abortion care when she was miscarrying. And that is also true for already six women who died in Poland after not receiving very much needed abortion care because of the inhumane de facto abortion ban. 
Whenever a woman dies because she did not receive the abortion care she needed to be saved, society sends a message to all of us that even in moments of absolute vulnerability, they will not help us because our lives do not matter enough. They will actually let us die. They will let us die because a fundamentalist ideology matters more than our lives. 
Honestly, I do not want to live in a society like this, and definitely I do not want to get pregnant in a society like this. So, colleagues, let us end all forms of violence against women. Let us end these inhumane abortion bans.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-11-10
Debate: Resumption of the sitting

  Terry Reintke (Verts/ALE).   – Frau Präsidentin! In der Tat, gestern, am 9. November, diesem denkwürdigen Tag deutscher und europäischer Geschichte, ist unser ehemaliger Kollege Werner Schulz bei einer Gedenkveranstaltung im Schloss Bellevue überraschend aus dem Leben gerissen worden. 
Wir erinnern Werner als einen Streiter für Bürgerrechte, beginnend in der früheren DDR, aber dann auch auf seinem Lebensweg. Er war ein Streiter für die wehrhafte Demokratie, für eine kritische Zivilgesellschaft und für Menschenrechte. Werner war ein Freiheitskämpfer, ein überzeugter Europäer, ein scharfer Kritiker Putins und vehementer Verteidiger der Ukraine. Ich glaube, das sollte uns allen zu denken geben. 
Wir werden Werner sehr, sehr schmerzlich vermissen, gerade in diesen Zeiten. Aber sein Wirken wird für uns alle, auch hier im Europäischen Parlament, unvergessen bleiben.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-11-09
Debate: Order of business

  Terry Reintke,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, colleagues, as you all know, the Conditionality Regulation has been activated by the European Commission for the first time in the case of Hungary. And also we have seen, in the recent weeks and days, movement on the negotiations on the RRP regarding Hungary. 
We believe that the European Parliament has to make its voice heard in these discussions and we are aware that there is a counter-proposal to move this to November II. I just want to give you the argument why we believe it’s important to have a first round of speakers already tomorrow, because if we want to influence the ongoing negotiations before decisions are going to be taken, we should have a debate – at least a short debate – already tomorrow. And this obviously can then also be rounded up by a debate and a resolution in November II. So please vote in favour also of having a short discussion about this tomorrow.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-11-09
Debate: Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 20-21 October 2022 (debate)

  Terry Reintke,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, dear colleagues, what we have seen in the last weeks is that Putin is obviously realising that he cannot win the war in Ukraine on the battlefield and this is why he’s resorting to other means. 
First and foremost, in Ukraine, where millions of people have been without electricity and water after Russia bombed civilian infrastructure. But the energy war has also reached the rest of Europe. And there is only one way that we can win this war, and that is to act united. This energy crisis is, in fact, a gas dependency crisis. It is a crisis of wrong political choices: wrong political choices denying the reality of the dangers of climate change; wrong political choices, denying the reality of the dangers of being completely dependent for fossil fuels on a dictator –a dictator who wants to destroy our freedom and our democracy. 
But the answer to this cannot be that we put band-aids on a broken system and simply try to import gas and fossil fuels from elsewhere – especially when this means from other dictators. The only answer can be to build a system that is reliable with energy that is cheap and sustainable: wind and solar. And, yes, for that we will need more money for renewables. 
But we will also need to invest in better insulation of buildings. Because despite this crisis, we are still wasting valuable energy every day in badly insulated housing and this costs households money and keeping warm in winter should not be just for those who can afford it. Massive investment in insulating homes is a win-win for everyone because it protects people’s health and wallets. And it is a key pillar of our climate action and our responsibility to lead with when it comes to COP27. 
And, lastly, and I know that many of you don’t want to be confronted with this, but this is real:
(The speaker held up image on an A4 sheet of paper)
 A deputy minister of the new far-right government in Italy with a swastika armband, from a picture not too long ago. 
He said afterwards, apparently, that it was a joke, a prank. A joke about 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. A joke about the countless victims of Nazi ideology of fascism in Europe, the Roma, the trade unionists, the queer men and women, the resistance fighters, the allied soldiers who died on the battlefield for freedom, the women who were raped, the many people who were killed and tortured, the people who lost loved ones and their homes. A joke about a continent that was in complete ruins with 55 million people dead across the world. Especially today colleagues, this is not a joke. This is serious and we have to stand up to it together. And the conservatives especially have to learn from history. Let us work together and stand up to the far-right across Europe.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-10-18
Debate: Growing hate crimes against LGBTIQ people across Europe in light of the recent homophobic murder in Slovakia (debate)

  Terry Reintke,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, dear colleagues, so many moments have passed now where we had to express our condolences and our solidarity with victims of hate crime and terror. Of course, first and foremost, also today our love and solidarity goes to the victims, their loved ones and the whole LGBTI community in Slovakia.
But I want to take this opportunity and say something else as well. Words have consequences. This attack did not start when the shooter picked up the gun. This attack started long before. It started with words, with words of hatred, uttered on social media, on the Internet, but also unfortunately uttered in places in this Parliament. Words that deny us fundamental rights. Words that deny us equality. Words that go as far as denying our very existence. Words that frame us as a threat to society and that dehumanise us, just because we love someone or because we were assigned the wrong gender at birth.
I want to say this to the far right: stop these hate campaigns. Your words have consequences. And I want to say to all of us: we cannot start at launching investigations after terror attacks like this have happened. We have to start when these words of hatred are being uttered. We have to stand up to this hatred in our societies and not just as queers, but everyone who believes in democracy, freedom, fundamental rights and peaceful societies.
Speaker: Terry REINTKE (Germany — Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Political group: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Date: 2022-10-17
Debate: Order of business

  Terry Reintke,  on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, as you rightly said, we would have a counter—proposal and the title of the counter—proposal that we would like to put forward is ‘fighting sexualised violence and violence against women: the importance of the Istanbul Convention and the need for a comprehensive directive against gender—based violence’. And we would like to propose this for Wednesday, as the fourth point of the agenda.
Let me give you the reasons why. First of all, because we believe that the timing is crucial. We do not want such an important topic to be moved to be the last item of the agenda, so we would like to have it moved up, for Wednesday.
The second point, and I really want to make sure that you understand this, we in this Parliament, we are not only a House for talking, we are a House for delivering. The Istanbul Convention and the directive against gender—based violence are two very important proposals that can really change the situation on the ground and make more tangible our fight against sexualised violence and violence against women. This is why we ask you to support our proposal.