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European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Introductory remarks by Commissioner Hoekstra at an exchange of views in the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg Luxembourg, 16 April 2026 Thank you very much for your kind words, dear Chair, Honorables Deputés, Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for having the opportunity to be here with you today. I have to confess to you: I'm biased, I consider myself a friend of th...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Introductory remarks by Commissioner Hoekstra at an exchange of views in the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg Luxembourg, 16 April 2026 Thank you very much for your kind words, dear Chair, Honorables Deputés, Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for having the opportunity to be here with you today. I have to confess to you: I'm biased, I consider myself a friend of the country, I have been here very often in a private capacity. And I have always tremendously enjoyed the cooperation with all interlocutors from your government when I was Finance Minister and Foreign Minister but also as an EU Commissioner. It has always been a tremendous joy working together on the issues at hand. May I also say that I have always deeply admired the spirit of collegiality and solutions-oriented way, in which your Prime Ministers and Ministers have sought to establish policies at a European level. This is something which has allowed your country to punch above its weight, and something from which we can all learn. So I wanted to salute that, and thank you for playing that hugely important role, not just in the context of the Benelux but certainly also in the broader context of the European Union. Dear Chair, Thank you for your opening remarks and indeed: these are truly challenging times on a range of issues. The geopolitics are affecting all of us. This was already the case before the Americans embarked on the war with Iran. The hotspots and the horrible war the Russians are waging in Ukraine, the conflicts already ongoing in the Middle East, the assertiveness – some might say aggression – of China in the Indo-Pacific where already casting us in quite a difficult geopolitical situation. Now we have this crisis on top of it. Second, we are also dealing with the broader ramifications of truly significant climate change. Yes, this is about ecology, about our ecosystem. But this is having huge impact too on our economies and on geopolitics. Just to put it into perspective – and I am sure you are all familiar with the data – the planet is heating up at 1.5 degrees, for Europe it's 3 degrees. We get a disproportionate part of the misery, and of course, that percentage is not evenly distributed across Europe. Some will be at the receiving end even more, and unfortunately, the damage is only going up. So climate change is going to stay with us and it's going to get worse before it gets better. That's the economic reality Europe will be facing. Third, there are all sorts of other issues creating friction and volatility, which have to be dealt with. They range from the opportunities and risks stemming from AI, and concerns Europeans across the continent have about migration and integration. Europe also has a growth problem as well. If you think about how much money is needed to just sustain our quality of life that our citizens rightfully expect, and on top of that, you add defence spending, climate spending, energy transition, investments in tech and AI. That's quite an intimidating to-do list. And for that reason, we need more growth. More clean economic growth but more growth, nonetheless. And by the way, when you look at how the 27 are doing, I always admire your economic statistics and your numbers. There as well, there is a lot we can learn from you. Specifically on climate, the name of the game – and one of the things that is even clearer to us than two/three months ago – in my view, is the need to bring climate, competitiveness and independence much more hand in hand. We might have been occasionally too one-dimensional in the past. The way forward is to craft policies that work for climate, that also enhance our competitiveness and drive down prices, and that make sure we become more independent than less. The solution cannot be to become greener and more dependent on China. That simply is not the way forward. The crisis we're currently facing is dramatic: it asks for short-term measures to make sure we alleviate the pain our companies and our citizens are feeling. But it also articulates once again the huge importance of energy independence. And therefore the recipe that was needed from a climate perspective, that was needed because we're facing too high energy prices in Europe, is also needed from the perspective of independence. And in essence, that means much quicker electrification, more interconnectors between all 27 Member States, which are currently, frankly speaking, 27 energy markets. It means significantly more investments in European-made storage capacity. I was in a fantastic battery factory in France a few days ago. There you see and realise that batteries will be in all the equipment that need energy in only a few years from now. And we need to make sure that we reap the economic benefits from it. I know this is a sensitive topic in this country as well – and it is up to you to decide – but for Europe as a whole it will mean more nuclear, simply to have a baseload. It will also mean more solar. I come from a country where it almost always rains. Still, the Netherlands has more solar panels than the whole of Africa combined. Whereas Africa gets 40% of the world's sun. If you look at that from a positive perspective, there is an opportunity here in Europe. Same for wind. And on top of that much more investments in the grid network to facilitate all that renewable energy. I hope that we can reap at least part of the opportunity that the crisis provides, in accelerating that transition. Dear Chair, On climate, your Minister Serge Wilmes and the government at large is truly an ally in Europe. We are ambitious. At the same time, we are pragmatic, smart and reasonable. There is much more I could say but let me close my introduction here and open the floor for questions. SPEECH/26/830 Press contacts: Anna-Kaisa ITKONEN (+32 2 29 57501) Ana CRESPO PARRONDO (+32 2 29 81325) General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email
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