madam president i must say that i am very concerned about some of the aspects i have listened to here in parliament recently tonight the shortage of rare earth elements last night the eighty deficiency in protein a few weeks ago sugar beet factories being closed down and now we have a deficiency in sugar
i think it is time the european union started putting itself first and particularly trying to promote its industries
obviously where rare earth elements are concerned i welcome the commissioner's commitment to look at innovation in terms of getting substitution etc
and also recycling but above all to look at new technologies
i attended a seminar a few weeks ago in brussels which described new technology developed to get rare elements from the seabed
at the end of the day we have to look to be self-sufficient
it is good for the commissioner to go to brazil and to talk to china but if diplomacy fails and they do not give us what we want where do we go
if we do not have a strong economy we will be irrelevant politically
