2024-03-20 03:34:40
“As an industrial country, the Czech Republic does not need to ban internal combustion engines. It does not need to have expensive emission allowances,” says MEP Ondřej Knotek (ANO, member of the liberal Renew Europe faction) in the video. Last year, the European Parliament voted to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles in 2035, and ANO representatives were against it at the time. Knotek also talks about how the debate about the conflict of interests of his party leader affected his work.
Interview with MEP Knotek | Video: Daniela Dlabolová
Photo: EU
Regarding the third strongest faction in the European Parliament, Knotek says that it is “a lot politically straddled”, so the debates are “sometimes difficult”, according to him. He recalls that his Hungarian colleagues from the opposition were annoyed that the ANO movement was defending Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. “But he is, in short, a statesman who is successful. And we think that there is a need to have fun within the area of Central Europe,” says Knotek.
According to Knotek, the repeated debates on the floor of the plenary session of the parliament about the conflict of interests of Andrej Babiš had no impact on his work or the position of ANO in the faction. As soon as the voting on Babiš ended, “the MPs forgot about it”, he claims.
Ondřej Knotek also deals with public health in the European Parliament and in the video he mentions examples of when and why European cooperation in this area makes sense.