 Starting with the leader of the EPP Group, Manfred Weber. Madam President of the European Parliament, Madam President of the European Commission, Madam Zelensky, Czech Presidency dear colleagues. Last week the hemicycle in Brussels was full with young people. The organized EPP Group a youth week at the beginning of the autumn session and during the discussion Eva Madele, a young colleague of ours, about a moving encounter during summer. She was in Bulgaria in a supermarket checkout and there was a young lady. She didn't speak very well Bulgarian, she talked with her and was a Ukraine refugee. Young, talented. She was excited to start her university studies and then war fleeing, losing loved ones. She was from Mariupol and ending up in uncertainty. That is the brutal reality of Putin's war. And on the other hand, in my constituency, I received a letter from a small bakery. After decades of baking Bavarian bread, he wrote to me, he cannot survive with the high energy costs. The baker told me, Putin is a war criminal, no doubt about this. But how can I survive? These two stories marks the challenge in front of us. And our EPP answer is, we need a winter of solidarity. Solidarity, first of all, with Ukraine, more weapons, more money, more solidarity, Putin must lose, Ukraine must win. Great news from Ukraine that they are pushing back the Russian troops from their soil and Madame Zelensky, we admire what your soldiers are doing there on the front line. Thank you for this. And dear friends, solidarity among Europeans, nobody left behind. We care for the poor in our societies and help our economies, especially the SMEs. Crisis times means now leadership. The EPP supports the proposal of the Commission presented today on support for Ukraine, but also to give an answer on the soaring energy prices. But there is more to do. The markets, dear ladies and gentlemen, are obviously speculating against European solidarity when winter will really be hard. And let's be concrete. It is not normal in a market that Scholz has to call Macron to open a gas pipeline. And we would be more independent if Spain would be better connected to the European gas market. And dear friends, if it is true that the winter will be hard and we must use all our energy resources, Germany cannot stop producing nuclear electricity and on the other hand ask the Dutch to ask for gas solidarity. That's not the case. And let's be honest. It was a lost summer. The EPP has been asking for an extraordinary counseling meeting to give certainty, to structure things, to show everyone that we are united and you cannot split up Europe. And the signal would have had already lowered the prices. People are paying because politics was and is for the moment among member states not strong enough. And dear friends on inflation, not only driven by energy. First it's an ECB task that's clear. But I think we also can contribute. One example, we have a global food crisis and that is also increasing the prices for our citizens. And the commission is now presenting new regulations which will limit food production in Europe and produce more bureaucratic burden for our farmers. For new legislation, the commission promised the principle of one in and one out. If we continue like this, then at the end of the mandate we will arrive to five in and only one out. Dear friends, we have war in Europe and parts of the Brussels community are continuing to make new laws and new burdens as nothing has happened. That's why we as EPP Group are asking for a moratorium on new legislation. Let our business, especially the SMEs, do their work without burdening them. And for creating growth and having a recession now in mind, we as EPP stand for creating a union of democratic economies on global level. Europe is a trading continent and if you want to limit our dependency on the autocracies, on China and others and that is the lesson we learned out of the Russian gas war, then we must speed up on trade deals with other democracies. And as EPP we always did so, but I just want to remind ourselves about the CETA debate in this House where the left, Greens and part of the Socialists were opposing to doing a trade deal with Canada. Canada, dear friends, you frightened Europeans with misleading arguments and even with lies and until now Schultz and Macron are not ready to ratify CETA on national level but they are great in doing pictures with Tridor. That is not serious, dear friends. That is not serious. And about democracies, yes, Madame President, you spoke about defending rule of law and with you as Commission President and I have to say also in Poland with friends like Donald Tusk, we as EPP, we are fighting for rule of law. You stopped the money as EPP President of the Commission to Poland and Hungary. That's why we are very, very proud about this. Rule of law must be judged and based on clear criteria, fair procedure and must be blind like justice without looking at party books. And speaking about democracies, I have to come back to the energy proposals. Madame President, we spoke about this. You have our full support on the procedure, but on the content but on the procedure I have to say we have to respect the European Parliament as a people's chamber. Can you imagine a windfall tax and a price cap being decided on national level without the vote in the national parliament? We would call this a democratic problem. But now we have proposals on the table who are doing this on Europe and that should not be the new normal on European level. The decisions without the European Parliament should not be the new normal in Europe and that's why please consider again the legal base for the proposals on the table. The EPP stands for a democratic Europe and that means a Europe where all legislation is voted in this chamber. And then finally during the COVID crisis, the friends we were ready for doing bigger steps. CRRF proposed by Ursula von der Leyen is bigger than the Marshall Plan was. We changed the architecture of Europe and that was great. But today, Boris is back in Europe. There was no council meeting on coordinating our defence activities. Only words. There is no initiative to stop the university vote on foreign affairs. Only a speech from Chancellor Scholz and Prague. No convention to strengthen the European democracy requested by this chamber and the conference for the future of Europe. Only I have to say campaigning in Paris. The Commission has to launch now until December a European defence action plan as a concrete initiative in this field to invest together to build up a European missile defence system and a cyber brigade to make Europe stronger on this and we need and thanks for your clear statement a convention now. EPP stands for a more ambitious Europe. The times of Sunday speeches are over. Europe will be not saved by university pulpit speeches but by political leadership and the Ukraine refugee in Bulgaria and my baker, they believe in this and they understand this. That's why leadership and leadership now.