unimelb-nlp/MultiEup-v2 huggingface dataset:
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

And this is why I find that the screening instrument is so important, so that we are direct and specific and saying, Well, this will do, but that will not do. And also that we distinguish between different sectors. And this is why I find that it’s really good that this legislation has been politically agreed; that we say, well, these are many sectors, but these are also essential sectors. And there will be other sectors where investment is welcome. Without all these safeguards that have been needed. And I think in the world that we live in, it is important to be specific, to say, well, this is what we want, this is what we don’t want, and make sure that Member States, of course, assess that specifically. I think the approach to 5G is a very good example to this. First, we made the common assessment of the risk with 5G. Then with Member States the Commission developed the toolbox. Now, every Member State is in the process of using that toolbox. From the Commission side, we do as much as we can for Member States actively to use the toolbox to make sure that when 5G is being deployed, that every Member State can tell its citizens this infrastructure is safe: you can enjoy the benefits of 5G without having a risk of being the victim of having data stolen or being exposed to surveillance. So the push of that, of course, is important.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Eugen Tomac
Political group: PPE
Country: France
Language: RO

Criza Covid a scos la suprafață o parte din vulnerabilitățile cooperării noastre economice cu China. Aceste vulnerabilități, însă, s-au accentuat odată cu declanșarea războiului în Europa, război declanșat de Rusia, care a șantajat Europa și, evident, a atacat în mod direct o parte din infrastructura noastră critică. Pe lângă instrumentele pe care le-ați amintit până acum, pe care le recomandați statelor membre, precum Mecanismul de monitorizare a investițiilor directe, ce alte recomandări mai aveți pentru statele membre, astfel încât să ne putem păzi mult mai bine infrastructura critică, infrastructura strategică, astfel încât economia noastră să fie și sigură, și ferită de oricare provocări pe viitor ?
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

Obviously, a gazillion times harder on the Ukrainians themselves but the rest of Europe is taking a toll as well. We have seen the disturbance in the rail industry and trains being disrupted. There are many cyberattacks on Europe on a daily basis. No surprise, what I would recommend Member States, next to making sure that they fully implements and enforce the legislation passed by this House, is, of course, to cooperate more, to work with each other, to exchange best practices. I would hope that they would also pool resources, that we to a still larger degree could make sure that we help each other out when it comes to cybersecurity.  I have a coordinating responsibility for European defence – that, of course, is completely within a NATO strategy. But I think here it’s an important consideration to say, well, now when all Member States will invest more in defence, that we also do that not just to invest more in the defence capabilities that we had, but also look at what are the kind of threats that we are faced with because they are different threats. We see how this war is so much hybrid on Ukraine and we see the fallout also on European Member States.  So I think the core is still, no matter how trivial it may sound, that Europe is stronger when we work together. We have a very long history and there are good reasons as to why security is a national competence. But I think there are efficiencies, there are security to harvest, if we work more together.  We have something, for instance, in the NIS2 Directive that makes Member States come together but I do think that we could do still more if Member States would want to work together more than they do today.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Viola von Cramon-Taubadel
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Ireland
Language: DE

Herr Präsident! Was tut ein unbeaufsichtigtes Kind im Süßwarenladen? Es bedient sich ganz ungeniert. Und genau das tut China im Moment hier in der Europäischen Union: Es stopft sich seit Jahren gierig die Taschen voll. Hier der Hafen von Piräus, dort die portugiesischen Anteile der nationalen Übertragungsnetzbetreiber und dann noch einen finnischen Antikörperhersteller. Da heißt es heute:  Meine Frage: Wie kann die Kommission gewährleisten, dass der
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

I really do see what you mean when you start your question by referring to the gas dependence that we had, that we more or less sort of sleepwalked into, because the European business model is, of course built on research, innovation, excellent people, highly skilled workers, high productivity, but also on cheap energy, cheap raw materials and cheap labour in the value chain or the supply chain. And now all of that is changing because we cannot rely on cheap energy because we realise the security risks that come with it, because now they have materialised with the war in Europe. And this is why we are really pushing for raw materials diversification. It started already in the last mandate with the raw materials strategy under the leadership of my great colleague Maroš Šefčovič. Now, when you look at how much we are going to need, for instance, lithium, the demand is going to skyrocket in the next 15-20 years. It’s really important that we diversify because it’s not sustainable that lithium is mined, for instance, in Chile and then processed in China and then coming back to Europe. So we need to find many more ways to go. So we have this raw material alliance. I just recently had a meeting with a Canadian minister, Mr Champagne, who is so eager for Europeans to work with the Canadians, not only for lithium, but for many raw materials. And I think that is part of the answer.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Viola von Cramon-Taubadel
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Ireland
Language: DE

Welche Berücksichtigung finden denn neue Technologien, die noch nicht in die Kategorie sensibler Forschung fallen? Vielleicht können Sie dazu bitte noch einmal Stellung nehmen.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

On the second question, when you look at the Horizon Europe provisions, we have an article, I think it’s 22.5, which allows us to close certain calls for entities where we think that there might be a risk. And so far, when you look at emerging technologies, that could be, for instance, quantum, I think no Chinese or Chinese control directly or indirectly have been part of those calls. The Chinese are, I think, world-leading when it comes to quantum. Europe is also very far ahead. But because of that, we found that it’s important that funding in specific strategic sectors goes to entities where we know for sure that we can vouch for how they are working with it. So I think that is a good example of how we have a general provision that can be used specifically on different areas where we find that things may be at risk. These are few areas, because the openness of research also increases the level and the resilience of the research community. But there are areas where it is important to say ‘thank you but no thank you’ to entities participating in the calls.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Anna Bonfrisco
Political group: ID
Country: Belgium
Language: IT

Signor Presidente, onorevoli colleghi, ringrazio la Vicepresidente Vestager per aver risposto in maniera ampia e completa alle tante domande. La mia domanda si aggiunge a quella dei colleghi per chiederle conto di un'intera grande politica di liberalizzazioni e di competitività che lei ha rappresentato nell'Unione europea negli ultimi anni, una politica di qualche decennio che però, alla luce dei fatti e soprattutto alla luce del mutamento geopolitico avvenuto attorno a noi e così vicino all'Europa, rischia di mostrare tutta la sua debolezza. Interi comparti dell'industria europea, penso per esempio all'industria navale, sono diventati molto più deboli e competono nel mondo con maggiori difficoltà, in virtù del nostro impianto regolatorio europeo, che lei ha così fortemente favorito tra gli Stati membri. Questo ha riguardato le infrastrutture dei servizi finanziari, come le banche, ma anche quello della produzione meccanica industriale dell'Unione europea. Oggi tutto questo è così fragile che non solo non può competere più con gli altri attori, ma addirittura rischia di non essere più nemmeno autonomo e di assistere all'invasione da parte della Cina in Europa.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

What we have been building in Europe is a social market economy, which means that democratic bodies – national and in particular European – have set a legislative framework as to how things should work; what should be the environmental standards for us to breathe the air, for us to drink the water; how to make sure that when we fight climate change, that our Green Deal is now a growth strategy. I think that has made Europe one of the continents with the best possible living conditions on this planet. At the same time, within this framework democratically set up, businesses have been competing and there are many world—leading businesses right now. Unfortunately, we haven’t necessarily provided a single market in all sectors that could give them the strength at home to strongly compete abroad. I think that the digital sector is an obvious one of them. We never provided a digital single market, we didn’t provide a capital market that was sufficiently prone to take risks, to invest for businesses to scale. Now, when we enter the next chapter of digitalisation, I think it’s really important that we push for this digital single market to be a reality, for the capital market to be a reality, so that when we enter this chapter of digitalisation, where it’s much more business—to—business, much more deep tech, much more industrial digitalisation, that Europe gets to play its full role. Of course, that takes a lot of courage, that takes a lot of investment needs to materialise and maybe we can do more to support that. But I think we have prepared the ground while at the same time taking into consideration the concerns of European citizens when it comes to environmental issues, climate change and workers’ protection.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Anna Bonfrisco
Political group: ID
Country: Belgium
Language: IT

La ringrazio, signora Vestager, Lei prima ha parlato del tema della difesa, dell'industria della difesa. Ecco, questa è la grande prova che sta davanti a noi. La sfida che sta davanti a noi è quella di interpretare, oggi, tutta questa regolazione economica, di cui il Green Deal è gran parte, allo scopo di non indebolire ulteriormente le nostre imprese, di rafforzarle e di essere in grado di tutelare e difendere i territori, i porti, le infrastrutture, tutto ciò che anima la nostra vita non solo economica, ai fini della sicurezza e della difesa dell'Europa. La difesa!
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

We have now the first calls of the European Defence Fund, but if you look at the precursor to that, which was a small fund, I think 600 million, it was actually possible for both big and large companies to participate that had a relationship with the defence industry ecosystem, but also for big and small Member States to participate. So I definitely think that with that kind of European funding, with the openness when it comes to calls, we can strengthen the entire European defence industry and maybe make it because of that more attractive to Member States to do part of their investments, when it comes to ramping up the defence contribution, also to use European equipment. I think there is a strong competition between US and European defence capabilities and that may be so, but what we are doing right now is actually strengthening the European defence industry in good collaboration with Member States as far as I have seen it.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Joachim Stanisław Brudziński
Political group: ECR
Country: Germany
Language: PL

Panie Przewodniczący! Pani Komisarz! Była już tutaj mowa, jak wiele kontrowersji wzbudziła wizyta kanclerza Niemiec Olafa Scholza w Chinach, jak również decyzja o udostępnieniu udziałów chińskiej firmie Cosco w nowym projekcie hamburskiego portu, który ma polegać na budowie nowego odcinka portu kontenerowego.  Dziś niemieckie media informują z kolei, że działania Cosco w Hamburgu to dopiero początek. Są wiarygodne informacje, jakoby Chiny już od dawna omawiały z zarządem hamburskiego portu ewentualność zaangażowania Niemiec we współpracę z Chinami w basenie Morza Śródziemnego i Bałtyckiego. Według dokumentu Federalnego Ministerstwa Gospodarki i Technologii uzgodniono również poszukiwanie możliwości przejęcia wspólnie udziałów w terminalach kontenerowych w polskich portach. Dlaczego o tym mówię? Chciałbym zapytać, czy Komisja Europejska przygląda się tego typu działaniom, bo jesteśmy w Unii Europejskiej i wszyscy zgadzamy się, że przejęcie przez Chiny strategicznej infrastruktury to zagrożenie dla naszego bezpieczeństwa i dla naszej suwerenności. Ale czy pod płaszczykiem współpracy chińskich firm z partnerami w Unii Europejskiej, jak chociażby ten przykład, nie będzie próby wejścia tylnymi drzwiami do naszych portów?
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

But I think it is really important that because of the legislation, as it has been formulated, that we put the responsibility where it is to be had, which is with Member States. Of course, if there are issues that are competition-related, it can be for the European Commission to look at if there are issues where it is of a different nature. But for security services, of course it is for them to look at. These capabilities are not for the Commission.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Joachim Stanisław Brudziński
Political group: ECR
Country: Germany
Language: PL

Pani Komisarz! Bardzo dziękuję, natomiast na konkretnym przykładzie, jestem mieszkańcem Szczecina, byłym marynarzem. Moi koledzy z portu podają konkretny przykład. W tej chwili jest próba przejęcia, w oparciu o obowiązujące przepisy w Polsce, bo ma Pani Komisarz pełną, 100% racji, w tym, że to państwa członkowskie muszą dbać przede wszystkim w pierwszej kolejności o swoje bezpieczeństwo. Polska sobie radzi z tym znakomicie. Ministerstwo Obrony wielokrotnie odmawiało chociażby Chińczykom zakupów newralgicznych części portu w Trójmieście, w Gdańsku czy w Gdyni, ale na konkretnym przykładzie:  Dzisiaj w szczecińskim porcie jest próba przejęcia nie majątku, nie ziemi, ale spółki operacyjnej zajmującej się przeładunkami ważnymi z punktu widzenia bezpieczeństwa energetycznego, ładunkami. I teraz ta spółka ma być przejęta przez firmę niemiecką. Władze portu mówią coś takiego: mamy problem. Odpowiednie instytucje w Polsce mówią mamy problem, bo za chwilę Komisja Europejska, jeżeli odmówimy sprzedaży tej części udziałów, Komisja Europejska może to zakwestionować jako działania wbrew konkurencji, wbrew wolnemu przepływowi środków w ramach Unii Europejskiej.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

I think here – and, as I said earlier on, I will take the idea of having a European port strategy to my colleague who is responsible for ports, Adina Vălean – it is very important, first things first, we have national authorities, we have national police, we have national intelligence services. They have resources. They have competence. They should do their job.  The Commission has limited resources and above all, limited competence. So I think we cannot wait for neither – if so be – a European port strategy or more pan-European legislation for European competence on this. We need to make sure that those who have the responsibility also do their job. That is the only fast solution to things that are not as they are supposed to be.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Helmut Scholz
Political group: The Left
Country: Luxembourg
Language: DE

Herr Präsident! Frau Vizepräsidentin, ich komme noch mal auf Ihre einführenden Bemerkungen zurück, was die Vergangenheit betrifft. Es war die Finanzkrise 2009/2010, als konservative Parteien und viele Staaten innerhalb der EU Griechenland aufgefordert haben, den Hafen zu verkaufen, zu privatisieren. Und zur gleichen Zeit haben sie China gebeten, die Eurozonenländer zu stützen. Heute wird das immer so dargestellt, als ob China sozusagen mit List und Tücke die Häfen hier alle einkauft. Natürlich müssen wir über die Hafenstruktur, die kritische Infrastruktur sehr deutlich reden. Ich möchte aber, dass diese Infrastruktur in öffentlicher Hand bleibt. Wenn dort eingestiegen werden muss, weil es eine wirtschaftliche Situation in den verschiedenen Mitgliedstaaten gibt, dann bin ich daran interessiert, dass die Leute anständig bezahlt werden, dass die Arbeitsplätze erhalten werden, dass Umweltrechte, Menschenrechte etc. eingehalten werden. Wie muss also das Beihilfe- und Wettbewerbsrecht generell makroökonomisch, aber auch mit Blick auf die kritische Infrastruktur so umgestaltet werden, dass wir selbst diese Investitionen vornehmen können?
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

For me, as I said I’m quite neutral on ownership. For me, the results of the processes of how the infrastructure is managed and of course that I keep serving the purpose that it is set there to serve and that we for the future becomes, I think, somewhat more assertive as to who is invited in, because people are invited in for business, but not for undermining our security, that be the physical security of infrastructure or the cybersecurity of our infrastructure.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Helmut Scholz
Political group: The Left
Country: Luxembourg
Language: DE

Ich gehe noch mal weg von der kritischen Hafenwirtschaft, auch von der Infrastruktur. Sie sprachen auch von Lithium, von kritischer Rohstoffpartnerschaft – die halte ich für ganz wichtig. Aber auch dort müssen wir doch darüber nachdenken: Wie gestalten wir die so, dass die Investitionen, die wir dort tätigen, in unser Interesse und in das Interesse der Adressaten von Investitionen gelangen, und wie wird praktisch bei dieser Investitionsneuausrichtung der Adressat bei der Bestimmung der Richtung von Investitionen, des Ausmaßes der Investition mit beteiligt?
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

And I think it’s really important that we say, well, if you want things to be done in a good manner, the price will be higher. But we should be willing to pay that price because both we can make sure that we vouch for ourselves when it comes to the labour conditions, the environmental effects, the climate effect, but also we can say that we pay a security premium when we diversify the supply of raw materials. We have raw materials in Spain, in Sweden, in Norway, numerous places within the Union, we have developing partnerships with countries outside of the Union, Canada being an obvious one of them, probably the most European country on this planet. And I think we can do that in a way where we can actually say, this is OK. It is doable these days, in particular if the people doing the mining get a bigger bit of the value added of what they are producing.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Reinhard Bütikofer
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Italy
Language: EN

Thank you, Executive Vice-President, for tackling this important issue here. I believe the protection of strategic infrastructure cannot just be expected from the executive branch of government. We need an all-of-society effort to deal with the integrated multi-actor activities from the Chinese side.  In that regard, I think it’s important to raise the awareness of the public. I think the Commission should look into opportunities for supporting, for instance, mapping efforts by academia or think tanks that would help to raise awareness. Also, I believe that often on the local level there is a lack of China competency. In twinning relationships, small towns of below 100 000 inhabitants are twinned with several million inhabitants in a big Chinese metropolis. They could be overwhelmed. So there should be efforts to enhance their China competency to deal with these issues.  And finally, the EU cannot impose a European port strategy, but the European Union can support efforts by national actors, by regional actors to coordinate. And there we have not been doing what we should be doing.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

When it comes to within the Union, I think it is a fair point both to make sure that more people have the awareness, that media have the expertise to call upon when they want to do articles. I don’t know the state of China research within the Union or how that is made available, but I would be more than happy to come back with this because I think awareness is a very important point and also the awareness that nothing comes for free. If you take Chinese investment and that is seemingly for free, you should look at what is written with small letters, as you should do with every contract.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Reinhard Bütikofer
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Italy
Language: EN

Just one short additional remark. Some Member States, like the Dutch or the Swedish, have invested into creating national China competency centres or different institutions that help creating that competency that we need on all societal levels. And I think it would be helpful if the Commission could put some effort into propagating those shining examples.
Debate: Question Time  - “Protection of strategic infrastructure from China's influence”
Date: TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Othmar Karas
Country: Germany
Language: DE

Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen, damit ist die Fragestunde beendet. Ich möchte mich recht herzlich bei den 21 Fragestellern bedanken und für die dazugehörigen Antworten bei der Exekutiv-Vizepräsidentin, Frau Vestager – herzlichen Dank.