9-oji Parlamento kadencija Billy KELLEHER

Fianna Fáil welcomes the report on the implementation of the Geo-blocking Regulation, which has provided real and tangible benefits for European citizens since 2018. We are concerned, however, that some geo-blocking barriers remain which could prevent our companies and citizens from harnessing the full potential of the single market.
We are therefore disappointed that the Commission has not yet presented the Parliament with the outcome of its stakeholder dialogue on possibly extending the scope of the Geo-blocking Regulation to audio-visual content.
We firmly believe that the European cultural sector is one of our greatest assets, and one that should be enjoyed – and supported – in its entirety by citizens across the 27 EU Member States.
Nevertheless, we would like to reiterate our position that any future proposal on extending the scope of the regulation can only be presented after a full and comprehensive assessment of the potential impact on the sector.
We also believe that, if a review of the regulation were proposed on the basis of this assessment, changes would need to be introduced gradually, to give providers of audio-visual services the opportunity to adapt their business models.
Strong safeguards would also be needed to guarantee the viability of small producers and audio-visual content in minority languages.

Tax and other related measures proved to be useful tools in response to the COVID crisis and the energy crisis that ensued from Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. For example, the so-called ‘energy windfall taxes’ and solidarity contributions helped protect consumers and support vulnerable households in coping with the exorbitant energy bills. Furthermore, some Member States, such as Ireland, have put in place measures to prevent the double taxation of Ukrainian refugees on income earned whilst outside of Ukraine.
Fianna Fáil are supportive of such measures, provided that they are temporary and targeted in nature, and the revenue is used to address the crisis at hand.
Unfortunately, we were not able to give our full support to this report and instead abstained. As is often the case with Parliament reports on tax measures, the scope was unnecessarily inflated to cover a much broader discussion on additional own resources and the direct contribution of corporate tax to EU own resources.

The Fianna Fail MEPs consider this proposal on standards of key importance to improving air quality and protecting public health. The new regulation as proposed by the Commission intends to introduce more stringent limits for exhaust emissions (such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and ammonia), and proposes to introduce new measures to reduce emissions from tyres and brakes, and increase battery durability.
Unfortunately, the Parliament’s text undermines the ambition of the Commission’s original proposal in terms of limits and time frames for implementation. In this regard, and to communicate our disappointment with the lack of ambition and failure to bring forward clear and swift measures for reducing road transport derived air pollutants such as nitrous oxides and particulate matter, safeguarding public health and helping to meet our revised commitments, we abstained on the final vote.