Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
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00:01:39Božo Kovačević is waiting for us this time in
00:01:41London,
00:02:00The next item on the agenda
00:02:03is the Commission's statement on the protection of human health
00:02:07from toxic
00:02:08substances.
00:02:12This is the last debate this week
00:02:16in plenary, but it is very
00:02:19significant because it discusses toxic substances
00:02:22that are
00:02:25dangerous to the health of Europeans. Recently there
00:02:28have been. Many such examples across
00:02:31Europe, Italy, Germany,
00:02:35Romania and the city of Gospić in Croatia.
00:02:39Allow me to express full solidarity with
00:02:42the citizens of Europe and to express
00:02:45the desire to protect the health of all our
00:03:01Protecting health is something
00:03:06citizens, that is of fundamental value to us, protecting citizens and our
00:03:09economies. This is not something that is
00:03:12unilateral, it goes from every level of
00:03:16government in different
00:03:19sectors. I will start with one of the sectors
00:03:23that is very harmful and
00:03:26easy to avoid, that is...
00:03:30Tobacco. 700,000
00:03:33people
00:03:34died in
00:03:372012 due to tobacco, and
00:03:40in 2023,
00:03:42520,000 people, which is significant
00:03:46progress. However, this still means that approximately
00:03:49half a million people in Europe still die
00:03:53every year due to
00:03:56tobacco use. The use of
00:03:59nicotine in various forms is spreading, especially among
00:04:03young people, half of
00:04:05whom are under 40 years old,
00:04:09a large number of them in the age
00:04:12group of 14 to 19 years old, who already
00:04:15regularly start smoking
00:04:17e-cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes
00:04:21exist with nicotine or without nicotine,
00:04:25but those without nicotine contain
00:04:28dangerous metals, such as lead or
00:04:32nickel. These substances
00:04:36have a harmful effect on
00:04:39the body
00:04:40and various
00:04:43parts of the body,
00:04:46especially the respiratory system. Therefore,
00:04:49we are trying to work
00:04:52on new regulations to
00:04:55provide protection from these harmful products.
00:04:58In that regulation, we will
00:05:02also deal with very
00:05:05attractive marketing, especially
00:05:09on the internet, where they try to attract interest for
00:05:12products, especially among younger consumers.
00:05:16Now the European Union is working on a large consultation
00:05:19process. Second, protecting
00:05:23citizens means focusing on
00:05:27those who treat citizens. From the beginning of
00:05:312025,
00:05:33we have reduced
00:05:36the possibility of using certain types of amalgams that
00:05:40use mercury in this way. We have reduced
00:05:43citizens' exposure to
00:05:47the goal was to protect citizens as
00:05:51well as workers and
00:05:53set limit values,
00:05:57maximum limit values for such
00:05:59substances.
00:06:02Also, the European Commission
00:06:05has, due to this
00:06:08situation, significantly revised
00:06:11many of its regulations ranging from
00:06:15industrial emissions to
00:06:17waste management. The European Commission also
00:06:21revises the REACH regulation, which
00:06:24revises limit values for many
00:06:27substances. Work is currently underway
00:06:31on restrictions related to Pefas
00:06:35in general. And now something else that
00:06:38concerns all Europeans, that
00:06:42is: the food we eat, which is on our
00:06:45table every day, food is indeed
00:06:49exposed to many harmful
00:06:52substances and pollutants, many
00:06:55residues, the maximum
00:06:57values for these substances are now
00:07:01in our regulations after eFS
00:07:03assessments, all this also
00:07:07requires good supervision. In
00:07:10past years.
00:07:1218%
00:07:15of samples were either without residues or residues
00:07:19within the prescribed
00:07:22values. Most of the residues found
00:07:26were related to substances that are not
00:07:29allowed on the market. This
00:07:32also applies to all products that
00:07:35come from outside our borders, so if they
00:07:39contain products that are not allowed in Europe,
00:07:42they must not enter our markets.
00:07:45The European Commission will accompany the detection
00:07:49of such products with practical
00:07:52measures, increasing audits from 50
00:07:55percent in third countries and by 33%
00:07:59increasing border controls. We also have
00:08:03national experts who
00:08:06go to border
00:08:10crossings. They
00:08:12started such work at the beginning of this week.
00:08:15Also, a certain number of
00:08:18customs
00:08:21officers will undergo additional professional
00:08:24training, those who
00:08:28will thus acquire knowledge where they will be
00:08:31most useful. So,
00:08:35exposure to various
00:08:38harmful substances, from tobacco to
00:08:42chemicals to harmful substances in
00:08:46our plates, is something
00:08:49where our citizens expect
00:09:05is neither a left nor a right topic.
00:09:08Clean water, air and environment concern all of us.
00:09:14And that is why when problems arise, when failures occur, or when
00:09:17situations like the ones we unfortunately face in
00:09:20Croatia occur,
00:09:23serious politics solves the problem, it does not
00:09:26spread fear and panic. Serious
00:09:30politics brings citizens the results
00:09:32of remediation, it does not use citizens' fear for its
00:09:36plans. Illegal waste management
00:09:40represents a significant European challenge, which concerns
00:09:44every member state, because
00:09:47environmental crime is often cross-border
00:09:50in nature, as we know, and one of the most lucrative
00:09:53activities of organized crime.
00:09:57Illegal disposal, more than 35,000
00:10:00tons of hazardous waste in Varaždin, Gospić
00:10:04and Benkovac, which was discovered with the help
00:10:07of Europol, shows how much damage
00:10:10can be caused by such illegal
00:10:12activities,
00:10:15but that makes it even clearer that concern for
00:10:18health cannot be proven by the loudness
00:10:22of an ideological attack, but by independent analysis, public
00:10:25data, and remediation deadlines. This case
00:10:29is therefore not another opportunity for ideological rivalry,
00:10:32but a test of the strength of our rule of law.
00:10:36Citizens have the right to truth, to continuous health monitoring
00:10:40and to remediation with clear deadlines. Perpetrators, without
00:10:44any doubt, must be prosecuted and
00:10:46held accountable. In conclusion, colleagues,
00:10:49it is clear that we will not choose between
00:10:53ignoring the problem on one side and spreading panic on
00:10:57the other, but that we choose measurement,
00:10:59transparency, remediation and accountability, concrete measures that
00:11:03will be presented by colleagues from the delegation, we choose to
00:11:06protect our fellow citizens and not fill them with fear
00:11:10and then politically
00:11:12ride on that fear.
00:11:26First of all, I would like to say that asking questions is not spreading
00:11:29panic, but protecting citizens. How important
00:11:33today's discussion is, I will illustrate with the example of the city of Gospić in my
00:11:37Croatia. The city of Gospić today has about 35,000 tons
00:11:41of illegally deposited waste, more than
00:11:44three tons per every inhabitant. Such an
00:11:47ecological disaster does not happen overnight. It
00:11:50happens when the government turns a blind eye for years and when
00:11:54it caters to the interests
00:11:57of well-connected individuals instead of protecting
00:12:01citizens. It happens when corruption, favoritism and
00:12:04political silence become more important than the health
00:12:08of citizens. Some are now trying to shift the blame
00:12:12exclusively to cross-border waste traffic and international
00:12:15crime. Yes, this should undoubtedly
00:12:18be investigated, but rules exist and they
00:12:22are very clear. The question is why the government and state
00:12:25institutions did not implement them, how is it possible
00:12:29that thousands of trucks with hazardous waste from several
00:12:32countries crossed the border, that no one inspected them, how
00:12:36is it possible that they ended up buried in Gospić, how
00:12:40is it possible that even after several dozen inspections,
00:12:43the state failed to prevent the scale
00:12:47of illegal disposal, not only in Gospić, but in
00:12:50other locations. In the case of Gospić alone, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
00:12:54Union was violated, at least five European directives and
00:12:58laws, and two conventions related to waste. And
00:13:02something else: the legal deadline for disposing of illegally imported
00:13:05waste is 30 days, and what do we have today in Gospić after
00:13:09580 days since the arrest? This is just one example of
00:13:13many, as if the protection of human health from toxic
00:13:16hazardous substances were a question of political
00:13:19will. It is not, it is the obligation of the state and its
00:13:22institutions, and when the state fails, we must turn to
00:13:26European institutions, which is the last line of defense for the health of our
00:13:31on which we seriously
00:13:51of our citizens from toxic substances is something that is
00:13:55absolutely necessary, it is a challenge that requires
00:13:59a strictly rational approach. In this council,
00:14:03especially among the Left and
00:14:05the Greens, scientific rationality
00:14:09has long given way to
00:14:11ideology and moral panic. It's been
00:14:15clear for a long time: poison is something that
00:14:19depends on the dose. Today
00:14:22we are looking for
00:14:26a tiny molecule, because
00:14:29we can do that today in a very, very
00:14:32diluted way, but
00:14:35the extreme left environmentalists
00:14:38constantly
00:14:40mix something with
00:14:44health risk, which creates policies
00:14:48of fear that have catastrophic consequences. In
00:14:51toxicology, this is called harmful
00:14:55substitution. This has nothing to do with
00:14:58reality. You leftists and
00:15:01Macronists are looking for things
00:15:04that you simply defend but
00:15:07do not offer any good
00:15:09alternative, because, for example,
00:15:13you do not
00:15:15want to use some
00:15:18pesticides and simply because
00:15:22of that you harm
00:15:25the production of sugar beet.
00:15:29By doing so, you are asking for tractors to
00:15:33pass many times, spraying something
00:15:36else. This is not
00:15:39ecology, it is cynical
00:15:42commercialism, because you impose the
00:15:45strictest
00:15:47values
00:15:49in the world
00:15:52on our farmers and industrialists, and
00:15:55French farmers are truly impeccable.
00:15:59However, at the same time, you allow
00:16:02products to enter our markets
00:16:05that contain pesticides that are absolutely forbidden in the European
00:16:09Union. So where is the ecology when
00:16:12plant protection products from third countries are used
00:16:15on those products?
00:16:19Then those products, then those
00:16:22third then those pesticides are forbidden
00:16:26here. We in
00:16:28the National Rally
00:16:32party believe in much else
00:16:35than this kind of ecology. We want to
00:16:39protect our borders and finance
00:16:42research so that we can
00:16:45truly expand,
00:16:49protect our products, not so that all this
00:16:52leads to
00:16:54a punishable
00:17:07we have a truck that comes at night and
00:17:10instead of going to an authorized facility,
00:17:14it goes to an abandoned industrial
00:17:17site. The truck leaves and
00:17:21the problem disappears, but it doesn't disappear
00:17:24from the water, soil and lives of people living nearby,
00:17:28who eat crops from that land, who
00:17:32bathe in local waters. In Croatia, about
00:17:3537 industrial,
00:17:39electronic and medical waste imported from
00:17:42other EU member states has been disposed of. Pefas, so-called
00:17:46eternal chemicals, were also found in that
00:17:56must go through the entire
00:17:59process, have financial guarantees and must
00:18:02go through control. A criminal can simply
00:18:06place waste and bury it in
00:18:10the ground. Waste regulations are precisely
00:18:12what cause the highest costs for small and medium-sized enterprises.
00:18:16It is obvious that honesty is being killed because
00:18:20of too many rules and because of inconsistent
00:18:23interpretation in member states. Unfortunately, the conclusion is
00:18:27sad: if legal activity
00:18:30becomes complicated and expensive, and
00:18:33illegal activity becomes profitable,
00:18:36then the system actually creates incentives to
00:18:40circumvent legal regulations. What we
00:18:43need is effective enforcement
00:18:47of legal regulations. I will tell you what our
00:18:50government has done to
00:18:54fight the mafia that threatened the environment,
00:18:57health and lives of my
00:19:00fellow citizens. Between 2018 and
00:19:032023, Poland introduced
00:19:06mandatory camera
00:19:09monitoring for waste
00:19:12landfills, financial guarantees.
00:19:15Storage time was also reduced from three to one
00:19:19year, and the possibility of revoking
00:19:23licenses and permits
00:19:26and closing facilities was introduced. These are
00:19:28concrete measures.
00:19:33Abuse must be nipped in the bud.
00:19:37And decisively and effectively. We cannot
00:19:40expect security from a system whose
00:19:44targets are mostly honest businesses.
00:19:46We need a system that will
00:19:49effectively prosecute those who
00:19:52illegally transport,
00:19:55conceal and dispose of waste.
00:19:59Let's get rid of excessive
00:20:02regulations that are useless. Let's reward
00:20:06the honest.
00:20:21initially supposed to have a different title.
00:20:24Explicitly mentioned were
00:20:27Pefas chemicals and contaminated
00:20:31groundwater in Croatia. However,
00:20:34then a curious purification of that
00:20:37title occurred, and now it just
00:20:41says "Protection of people from toxic substances". It's a shame that
00:20:4437,000 tons of toxic waste
00:20:47in Gospić is not easy
00:20:50to clean up just like that. That's perhaps a little
00:20:54bigger challenge than purifying the debate title.
00:20:58Almost 35,000 tons of that waste is buried
00:21:01in the ground, and it's only a few kilometers away from
00:21:05Nikola Tesla's hometown. There is no need to explain that he was
00:21:09an individual who dedicated his life to the future, he thought
00:21:12about it long before everyone else,
00:21:16and it would be good if
00:21:20at least the short-term future were considered. However, this is not just
00:21:23a Croatian story, the waste came from other countries, Italy, Germany
00:21:27and my country, Slovenia.
00:21:30According to investigation data, over two years, about
00:21:3415,000 tons of waste came to
00:21:38Gospić from Slovenia. The Slovenian Inspectorate claims
00:21:41that no permits were issued for the
00:21:43delivery of waste to facilities related
00:21:47to this case. If you try to
00:21:50find evidence why this is a European problem,
00:21:53there it is, waste obviously crosses European
00:21:57borders more easily than we can say for
00:22:00political responsibility.
00:22:04PFAS was found, these chemicals were
00:22:07found in the groundwater near the contaminated
00:22:11area. Local residents have been warning
00:22:14about problems for years, but now
00:22:17Croatian Prime Minister Plenković talks about panic
00:22:20and hysterics. People are worried that the waste
00:22:24will remain, chemicals have penetrated
00:22:27the groundwater, but the problem only appeared when someone
00:22:31asked who was responsible. And when
00:22:34you think things can't get more absurd, that's exactly
00:22:38what happens: to bury about
00:22:4035,000 tons
00:22:43of waste, the Croatian subsidiary of a Slovenian
00:22:46company got the contract for it, and what was found?
00:22:50"in the business premises of that
00:22:52company, or rather, what was found near that Slovenian
00:22:56company, was precisely illegally buried waste. So we
00:22:59need European,
00:23:03European solutions, we need a quick possibility of remediation,
00:23:07effective implementation of the "polluter
00:23:09pays" principle, but above all, we need
00:23:13political responsibility. You can remove Croatia from
00:23:16the title of this debate, you can schedule a debate
00:23:20on Thursday afternoon at the end of the plenary session when
00:23:23most MEPs go home, but that won't solve the problem. Nikola Tesla
00:23:27left behind numerous inventions for future generations. What
00:23:31will you pass on to them, leave them, eternal
00:23:34chemicals? I think it would be better to leave them with greater
00:23:37responsibility.
00:23:50this house about the illegal import of 37,000 tons
00:23:54of toxic waste contaminated with PFAS from Italy,
00:23:57Slovenia and Germany to the city of Gospić in
00:24:00Croatia. This criminal ecocide
00:24:04directly endangered human health, what we are talking about today. In
00:24:08Croatia, the obligation
00:24:11to announce waste imports and the waste
00:24:14register have been abolished, and today our institutions
00:24:17do not know where almost a million tons
00:24:21of waste that enters our country every year is located.
00:24:25Commissioner, how was it possible at the national
00:24:29level to deregulate the control of waste imports, is
00:24:33that still in line with the waste shipment
00:24:36regulation? How is that possible?
00:24:39Additionally, it is necessary to adopt clear rules according
00:24:42to which a country that does not have the capacity for waste
00:24:45treatment cannot then import waste, because otherwise it
00:24:49ends up in the water. Finally, given that
00:24:53the national government has been failing for months to solve this ecocide in
00:24:57the Schengen area, I call on the Commission to monitor
00:25:00this case. Gospić and Croatia will not be the dump
00:25:03of the European Union, and they can't
00:25:28that people in Croatia
00:25:31are furious, that they are furious at politicians
00:25:34and decision-makers who put them
00:25:38in danger. However, the problem
00:25:41is much worse.
00:25:44We are talking about a thousand different
00:25:48toxic substances that pollute our
00:25:51environment, our children's toys, and even
00:25:54the food we consume.
00:25:58I would like to warn those who say that we
00:26:01want to reduce this. We don't have too many
00:26:05legal regulations, we have too little
00:26:08regulation. We allow too many chemicals
00:26:11to be in circulation. I participated in
00:26:15the omnibus negotiations in this
00:26:19area, and
00:26:22one of the consequences of this is that people will now be exposed to dangerous
00:26:26chemicals in the coming years. This is
00:26:29insane. The Commission has also delayed
00:26:33the reform of the chemical system, which it has promised us
00:26:36for years. It still hasn't
00:26:40come time to protect people from dangerous
00:26:44chemicals. That seems to be their perspective.
00:26:47So what are the consequences of all this?
00:26:51We are talking about
00:26:53PFAS chemicals and other substances. They would
00:26:57rather deregulate all of this than
00:27:00regulate it. And what will happen
00:27:04when we are poisoned, how will
00:27:08that, when we are contaminated, and how will that
00:27:11affect various diseases,
00:27:14the occurrence of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, fertility? But
00:27:18most people prefer not to
00:27:21discuss it.
00:27:25So we need to gradually stop
00:27:28producing PFAS chemicals, but instead
00:27:32their production is increasing, which will
00:27:35mean greater damage to the environment and to our
00:27:39health. This means that future generations will have to
00:27:42pay even
00:27:45more money, just to
00:27:48clean up PFAS by 2050.
00:27:51The cost of that would be around 440
00:27:55billion euros. When we talk about toxic substances, we must be
00:27:58aware of the fact that if we close our eyes to that fact, it will not
00:28:01disappear. Absence or failure
00:28:04to act is not something we will be able to do for free
00:28:07forever. Sometime in the future
00:28:11we will have to pay to settle
00:28:14the bills. This policy can only be described as
00:28:17irresponsible and
00:28:19immoral.
00:29:02I.
00:29:02Thank you for giving me the floor, what happened in Gospić should
00:29:15make us realize that there is a problem
00:29:27when it comes to this entire sector of
00:29:30waste management. An illegal
00:29:34waste disposal site was found
00:29:38near Gospić, documents were falsified
00:29:41to circumvent the regulations in force in
00:29:44Croatia, allegedly
00:29:47it was supposed to be
00:29:50plastic waste, however that was not
00:29:54the case. A number of companies from
00:29:58Italy transported waste to
00:30:01Croatia. There was also imported
00:30:04hazardous waste from
00:30:08Slovenia and Germany, including medical waste.
00:30:11The perpetrators allegedly earned more than 4 million
00:30:14euros, however the procedure is still ongoing,
00:30:17all this leaves one speechless,
00:30:21but fortunately cooperation between Croatian
00:30:24European authorities is working,
00:30:27so that certain profits
00:30:29have been confiscated.
00:30:32So this
00:30:38is indeed an example of
00:30:42how the fact that we do not have
00:30:45control at the borders can be dangerous and that is why we need
00:30:49very very harsh sanctions for those who are
00:30:53responsible, the competent authorities also need to be
00:30:56reviewed given that...