unimelb-nlp/MultiEup-v2 huggingface dataset:
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

And we are not only taking care of nuclear safety here in Europe, but also in our closest neighbourhood. So in this regard, one of my major concerns right now is also the situation in Ukraine, where they do have nuclear power plants. One of them is occupied by Russian troops, but they still keep going. And from our side, we provide them the necessary equipment. Now, the challenges that renewables are presenting. Well, you said that our investments in renewables will create situation where we will be 100% dependent on Russian gas. No, this is not true. We have never been 100% dependent on Russian gas. They provide a significant share of gas that we do consume, but this significant share has never been more than 40 and, day by day, this is decreasing because of the hard work that we are doing to reach out to alternative suppliers. And in past weeks we have witnessed record high deliveries of LNG shipments to our terminals and that shows that alternatives are possible. We will need gas also in the next decade but we do our utmost so that partially this gas demand will be covered by our own production and also by the production of biomethane and green hydrogen. So, energy mix is decided by the Member States. We do support them so that they can do it in accordance with three principles: decarbonisation, affordability and security of supply.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Robert Roos
Political group: ECR
Country: Spain
Language: NL

Voorzitter, ik heb niet gezegd dat wij honderd procent Russisch gas krijgen, maar dat wij op het moment dat we naar hernieuwbare energie overschakelen een back-upinstallatie moeten hebben die voor honderd procent voor fossiele energie bestemd is. Bent u in dat geval bereid het quotum van veertig procent hernieuwbare energie tegen 2030 los te laten? Dit vormt namelijk een enorm risico.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

I do believe that renewables are a smart way to lessen our dependence on imports. Renewable gases are also a wonderful tool in the hands of our farmers, for example, because we do have lots of residues that could be taken into good use and used to produce biogas. So this is one tempting way to provide our farmers also with alternative revenues – by using their production and replacing with that the imports. But of course, the targets that we set are individual, so every Member State will have its unique target based on their starting position. There are some Member States who do have a better starting position than others. We do prioritise, for example, the vast potential that offshore wind provides us, and you can expect that by the end of this month we will also come out with a permitting proposal, so that permitting of offshore and mainland wind and other installations could be done faster than it has been so far.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Eugen Tomac
Political group: PPE
Country: France
Language: RO

Doamnă președintă, doamnă comisar, a fost necesar ca Putin să ne demonstreze că Gazpromul este mai eficient decât Armata Roșie pentru a discuta despre nevoia de autonomie energetică în Europa. Este cunoscut faptul că la nivel european nu avem un cadru la fel de bun pentru rezervele de gaz, spre exemplu cum avem pentru cel de petrol. Și întrebarea mea către dumneavoastră este: ce măsuri concrete a luat Comisia pentru a susține statele astfel încât să își poată mări capacitatea de stocare a rezervelor de gaz?
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

To give also them necessary protection, we have put in place regional gas coordination groups so that the contingency plans are designed in a way that we take into account interconnections, LNG terminals, possible means to use reverse flows and of course underground gas storage. Last month we proposed the gas storage obligation and I am really grateful –I see you there, Professor Buzek – I am grateful that you are taking the fastest procedure that you can and will tackle the underground storage now as a strategic infrastructure. And in the longer run, last December we proposed the gas decarbonisation package that guides us to decarbonise our gas market and many Member States have already achieved the situation where natural gas represents a very small share in their energy mix.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Eugen Tomac
Political group: PPE
Country: France
Language: RO

Întrebarea mea următoare este legată de faptul că: dacă Comisia ia în calcul achiziția comună de gaz pe viitor, achiziția acestor stocuri legate de rezerve?
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

Our proposal on gas storage is seasonal storage. This means that before the heating season starts, before the withdrawal season starts, we do have this additional buffer that complements the flows via pipelines or LNG terminals. By creating this seasonal storage, we are not creating additional demand this very summer where we do have to meet the deficit situation. Your first question was: will we finance underground storage sites? There have been some Member States proposing underground storage sites and we will see the full list of what member states are proposing when we will complete the REpowerEU projects list.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Jutta Paulus
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Portugal
Language: DE

Frau Präsidentin! Frau Kommissarin, liebe Kadri, vielen Dank für diese Gelegenheit! Meine Fragen beziehen sich auf die Ziele unserer europäischen Energiepolitik. Nicht nur bei fossilen Energieträgern, sondern auch bei Uran ist die EU hochgradig abhängig von Importen. Aber unter den acht Szenarien, die die Kommission modelliert hat, findet sich kein einziges, was zu 100 % erneuerbare Energien abbildet, obwohl solche Szenarien von anderen Forschungseinrichtungen und mehreren Akteuren außerhalb der Kommission bereits modelliert wurden. Wird die Kommission hier nachlegen?  Und außerdem bildet auch keines dieser Szenarien ab, wie eine stärkere Beteiligung von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern an der Energiewende den Vorgang beschleunigen könnte. Wird die Kommission den Mitgliedstaaten eine Handreichung geben, damit die Rechte der europäischen
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

Now, on the part of the citizens’ empowerment, we have met bilaterally several times, and I fully agree with you that we should give citizens the feeling of ownership – because this actually accelerates our green transition if they do feel that they make a difference. And coming from Estonia, I do truly believe that digitalisation is the key. So, there are lots of actions already taking place on the ground and we do have good partners at the ENTSO-E or different associations that unite our energy market participants who are promoting this. But, of course, in big markets, it takes more time than in small markets, but this is a necessary way forward. Now, the question that there was a deadline on one proposal already last year, I will reach out again. I don’t have an answer ready for that for you right now.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Jutta Paulus
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Portugal
Language: EN

So as a follow up, if I may. You are totally right. If we want smart, active consumers being part of the electricity market, we, of course, would need a smart meter rollout in order for them to be able to sell their energy. So this is maybe the follow up question because the smart meter rollout was also due to be completed already, but not every single Member State has succeeded in doing so. So my question is when will the Commission act on this and put a bit more pressure on Member States to get going on the digitalisation of the energy sector?
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Laura Ferrara
Political group: NI
Country: Poland
Language: IT

Signora Presidente, onorevoli colleghi, Commissaria, il  Abbiamo contrastato in questo modo una crisi che non poteva essere affrontata singolarmente dagli Stati membri, ma in questo momento stiamo affrontando un'altra pandemia, che è quella energetica e che richiede un'analoga risposta. Fonti energetiche rinnovabili più sicure e accessibili contribuiranno a risolvere i problemi legati ad ambiente, cambiamenti climatici e sicurezza, a contenere i costi per famiglie e imprese e a raggiungere l'autonomia energetica dai paesi terzi. Eviteremmo così anche di contribuire indirettamente al finanziamento della campagna militare della Russia in Ucraina con i proventi della vendita dei suoi combustibili fossili.  Allora tutti questi obiettivi sono parte della strategia
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

You were asking why we are not adding something on top of the multiannual financial framework. Well, right now we are mapping the investment needs, so this is the plan behind this REpowerEU project list, butt first, we need to know what the projects are that are not already covered by the recovery plans or are not on the PCI list but are still very much needed. Then, on top of that, of course, if we replace our imports, these homegrown renewables, then this is also a business case for our private sector.  We cannot achieve these high targets without private investment, without our financial institutions stepping in and with the help of the private investors, but also with the EIB, who announced that they will be a Europe’s climate bank, we plan to accelerate this transition and we have to do that.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Laura Ferrara
Political group: NI
Country: Poland
Language: IT

Signora Presidente, onorevoli colleghi, mi piacerebbe ritornare sempre sull' In Italia è stato realizzato il superbonus al 110 per cento che ha dato una marcia veramente importante per far ripartire l'economia e per garantire l'efficientamento di immobili privati e statali. Dunque Le chiedo se veramente ci sia la possibilità di dare priorità e di introdurre questo strumento finanziario in modo da dare una risposta concreta e immediata.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

The Commission at this very moment is in the situation where we have to manoeuvre in the framework of the negotiated and agreed financial budget. And we will do so. We will indicate the resources that are there for the immediate need to solve this current challenge we face.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Carlos Zorrinho
Political group: S-D
Language: PT

Senhora Presidente, Senhora Comissária, estamos perante uma emergência. O diagnóstico está feito, o caminho está desenhado, as respostas conjunturais estão a ser aplicadas de forma rápida e corajosa. Mas a questão que lhe queria colocar é sobre as respostas estruturais, porque as respostas estruturais também são de necessidade imediata.  A Comissão Europeia considerou a Península Ibérica uma ilha energética. Por esse motivo, aliás, os Governos de Portugal e Espanha puderam aplicar o teto ao preço do gás introduzido na eletricidade para reduzir o impacto e também para reconhecer o investimento nas renováveis e o investimento e a falta de investimento nas interligações.  Mas queria fazer-lhe uma pergunta muito concreta. Aquilo que for feito na Península Ibérica vai ser a pedra de toque da resposta da Comissão Europeia à questão estrutural.  Há pouco, disse: “Apostemos primeiro nas interligações elétricas, as outras demoram muito tempo, mas tem que haver um procedimento excecional. Não podemos baixar os braços.”  Qual é o procedimento excecional para que a terceira ligação da Península Ibérica ao mercado europeu de energia possa ser concretizada?
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

I can only repeat what I told your colleagues earlier today that I do prioritise the interconnections, electricity interconnections and a better integrated electricity market will help us to accommodate more renewables. And as a result, consumers will have more hours where they can receive electricity at affordable prices. This is already the situation in Europe right now.  The market zones where renewables are representing a bigger share of the electricity mix, there consumers do have more affordable price levels and this is also a result of the EU projects that help these markets to be interconnected. So the Iberian Peninsula has been lagging behind in this process, but there are interconnections that are already decided and financed by the EU  So this is work ongoing. I think that is very important to say that we didn’t start our energy transition on the day when Russia started war against Ukraine. No. Major proposals were already tabled by the Commission last year, and the year before that and we built from the experience from the first previous Commission. So we were relatively well prepared and we are continuing our work.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Jerzy Buzek
Political group: PPE
Country: France
Language: EN

Madam President, I would like to thank the Commissioner for being with us. You are probably completely tired after two hours of heavy discussion, but it’s a very important discussion. Let me say, last month we voted in this House almost unanimously a full ban of Russian fossil fuels. And now the main responsibility in this House is the security of gas supply for our citizens, for our small and medium businesses. And as a matter of fact, we discussed the issue all the time – two hours almost, and we mentioned, which is very important, a simplified permission procedure for renewables – absolutely crucial for us, and also some infrastructure projects like interconnectors, maybe Spain, Germany, also Bulgaria and Greece, important, we feel it. But my question is on LNG terminals, because we need three or four of them to feel really secure. How do you see that – in the Netherlands, maybe, in Germany? So how do you see this possibility – within a REPowerEU proposal, maybe?
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

On LNG terminals, there are several already under construction. I know that one will be opened today in Greece. There are several governments which have announced and informed us that they have signed contracts to bring their floating LNG terminals to their coast. So this is a faster option that might help already during the next year and a half – and we are mapping these needs. But it is clear that we cannot replace Russian gas 100% with alternative gas supplies. We do have pipelines in place. All the other gas producers have informed us that they are doing their utmost to increase production. We do have commitments. The most prominent one was from the United States that they will deliver, on top of the record volumes already we received, on top of that, 15 billion cubic meters this year. But this doesn’t cover 100% of Russian gas.  So, with efficiency savings, renewables, all the other alternatives, without them, we will not get rid of Russian gas 100%.
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Marie Toussaint
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Hungary
Language: FR

Madame la Présidente, Madame la Commissaire, on a un dicton populaire en France qui dit que, quand c’est flou, c’est qu’il y a un loup. Or, j’ai entendu tout à l’heure l’un de nos collègues, M. Roos, dire que le risque pour l’Union européenne, c’était les énergies renouvelables, parce que ce sont les énergies renouvelables qui nous condamnent à rester enfermés dans le gaz russe. Madame la Commissaire, il y a des flous comme celui-ci qui sont absolument criminels. J’aurais aimé que vous lui répondiez que non, que ce sont les énergies renouvelables qui nous permettent de lutter contre notre dépendance au gaz russe, de protéger le climat et aussi de garantir la paix. Et je pense qu’il faut le dire absolument clairement. Ma question maintenant s’inscrit dans la même lignée, finalement, que celle de M. Buzek, même si ce n’est pas tout à fait sur le même chemin. Dans nos échanges avec vos services, il nous a été dit que, dans les estimations, nous n’avions pas besoin de nouvelles infrastructures gazières pour l’Union européenne. C’est d’ailleurs aussi ce à quoi nous appelle le GIEC pour le climat, nous disant que, non seulement il faut cesser de construire des infrastructures gazières, mais qu’il faudrait en plus en fermer avant qu’elles ne soient arrivées à leur retour sur investissement. Madame la Commissaire, pouvez-vous me confirmer que non, l’Union européenne ne soutiendra pas la construction de nouvelles infrastructures gazières?
Debate: Question Time  Europe’s Energy Autonomy: The strategic importance of renewables and energy interconnections and efficiency
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

So what can we do from our side? We can shorten the permitting so that new renewable installations are not taking decades, are not taking seven years, but a significantly shorter timeframe. And then to avoid very severe consequences this winter, we have mapped the needs to coordinate the gas infrastructure activities in the way that we are taking best care of existing infrastructure.  If there is something that we have to deliver in this regard, then we will find out. According to my best knowledge, we are well prepared to act in solidarity mode so that Member States can also help these countries which are landlocked, via reverse flow via the pipeline that is already built there and operational.
Debate: The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Evelyn Regner
Country: Netherlands
Language: DE

Als nächster Punkt der Tagesordnung folgt die Aussprache über die Folgemaßnahmen zu der Konferenz zur Zukunft Europas ( Ich weise Sie darauf hin, dass mit Ausnahme der ersten beiden Reihen, die den Fraktionsvorsitzenden vorbehalten sind, freie Sitzplatzwahl besteht. Sie können mithilfe Ihres Abstimmungsgeräts spontane Wortmeldungen beantragen und blaue Karten einsetzen, nachdem Sie Ihre Abstimmungskarte eingeschoben haben. Ich weise Sie auch darauf hin, dass Wortmeldungen im Plenarsaal weiterhin vom zentralen Rednerpult aus erfolgen. Dies gilt allerdings nicht für spontane Wortmeldungen, blaue Karten und Wortmeldungen zur Geschäftsordnung.
Debate: The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe
Date: TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2022
Speaker: Paulo Rangel
Political group: PPE
Country: Germany
Language: PT

Em primeiro lugar, é preciso dizer que nós conseguimos fazer este exercício de participação democrática com a presença ativa dos cidadãos, com uma pandemia que quase que matava a Conferência e com uma guerra agora nesta fase final. Isto foi uma prova da resistência, da resiliência democrática da União Europeia.  É verdade que a generalidade dos painéis de cidadãos produziu recomendações que eu diria muito estimulantes, muitas delas a precisarem, naturalmente, do contributo dos parlamentos nacionais, das instituições europeias, mas que, claramente, estão em linha com um avanço da integração europeia.  Penso que isso é um balanço claro e diria aqui, até, que isso nos veio trazer na saúde, na segurança e defesa, na democracia e no Estado de direito, nas alterações climáticas, na economia digital, verdadeiros impulsos para progredir no processo de integração europeia.  Claramente também, assistimos a uma valorização da democracia participativa, mas à vontade de reforçar a democracia representativa a todos os níveis. Esta é uma mensagem clara dos cidadãos e esta é uma mensagem clara das instituições e dos parlamentos nacionais, bem como de outros parceiros: parceiros sociais, o Conselho Económico e Social, o Comité das Regiões. Todos eles dão esta mensagem muito positiva.  Por isso, creio que o caminho natural como solução resultante desta Conferência é convocarmos uma Convenção para rever os tratados. Há muitas matérias que não precisam de uma revisão dos tratados, mas há outras decisivas para o futuro da União que precisam de uma revisão dos tratados e, por isso, o Parlamento deve propor às restantes instituições e, designadamente, ao Conselho, uma Convenção que possa tratar destas questões que foram levantadas pelos cidadãos, que as possa enquadrar e que possa terminar com um Tratado da União que a possa preparar para os próximos dez anos.  A pandemia, por um lado, e o momento de Kiev, por outro, mostram bem que quem resolveu avançar com a Conferência tinha razão. A Conferência foi confirmada pela História. Compete-nos agora estar à altura desses desafios.