What Jana spoke about.

Mr President, colleagues, one of the biggest achievements of the European Union is the freedom of movement, and more and more people are enjoying this freedom and settling in another Member State. What most of us do not think about very often is what would happen if we are suddenly left without the capacity to take our own decisions. This could be as a result of a really bad accident, from disease

Madam President, colleagues, I will tell you about an Estonian citizen: a young man who served as a paramedic in the Scouts Battalion – one of our elite armed forces' units. At the end of his service, he decided to marry. But he was unlucky; he fell in love with a Russian girl. They got married, but my country did not allow his wife to live in Estonia. Authorities referred to the fact that he can

Madam President, colleagues, the suffering of the women of Cyprus following the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the enduring consequences must not be forgotten. These women were attacked for the simple fact that they were women. They were put for these terrible sufferings as a way to demoralise the population and achieve a military goal. It is despicable. We have to recognise publicly the harm that t

Dear Mr President, The possibility to go and work in any other Member State is one of the most important achievements of the European Union. When workers exercise their freedom of movement, they must be entitled to protection of social rights. If they contribute to the country where they work, they should continue to be entitled to benefits after they have ceased working. It's that simple. However

Mr President, Commissioner, we are talking about an important societal issue today: serious cases of abuse by certain companies that have found ways to use the current system to gain an advantage, and very often, to escape total responsibility. All at the price of workers caught in the system. We saw it in the meat-packing industry in Germany a few years ago, before the government decided to take

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, of course I was prepared. You know how it goes – you have 60 seconds and you write it and you measure it. It's exactly 60 seconds. But after listening to this debate, I don't want to read it out. I'm extremely worried, really. A majority of the Members in this House at the moment, in this room, are on the same page. But this is not the first time we're on

Thank you, Commissioner, for your support. It's a pity you cannot vote tomorrow. 'We must show solidarity with the most affected regions in Europe, such as coal mining regions and others, to make sure the Green Deal gets everyone's full support and has a chance to become a reality.' These are not my words. I am quoting the political communication of the European Commission. These are the words of

Madam President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, our Union is facing an incredible amount of challenges at this moment: economic, energy-related, climate-related, geopolitical. It all can feel overwhelming and it is easy to lose focus. Even for us representatives elected by Europeans to spend all of our time understanding and tackling these challenges, it can be all too easy to lose focus and put a

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, I do not know, for some reason, the far right in this House are constantly crying, probably shouting. You probably think that if you shout, it makes you right. This is not the case. 17 years have passed since the Commission first proposed this directive. Next year, in July, it will reach the majority voting age. And yet, some countries do not take this

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, what stands out to me after almost one year in the Housing Committee is that no two housing situations I heard were the same. There are some common partners, of course, but it is clear that many of these issues come from national and regional challenges. So, while I normally take the floor in this Chamber to criticise the Commission for not being amb

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the work of the Committee of Petitions is unfortunately often underestimated, which I consider a big mistake, because we are the first – if not the only – direct channel for Europeans to address their concerns and seek solutions. This report very well reflects these expectations, as well as our ability to meet them. This ability, to be honest, is pretty

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the way forward to making life affordable, protecting jobs and wages, and ensuring a healthy work environment is by increasing collective bargaining, trade union coverage and strengthening dialogue with social partners, which can be achieved only by the Minimum Wage Directive. This is why I'm waiting anxiously to hear the ruling of the Court about the c

Madam President, colleagues, I'm speaking today on behalf of my voters. Last Wednesday, the Estonian Parliament amended the Constitution and cancelled the rights of third-country citizens and stateless people to vote in local elections. This threat existed for 30 years. The blow was aimed mostly at citizens of Russia and Belarus with a permanent residence permit, using the war of Russia against Uk

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, there is no doubt that economic difficulties will affect many companies across the EU during these very turbulent times, and the structuring of other types of changes will be necessary so that companies can return to a more profitable situation. However, these changes will be difficult and they will hurt many workers. So it is extremely timely to tal

Madam President, colleagues, the Treaty on European Union starts with the objective of creating an ever closer union, and continues in Article 2 with the shared values that this Union shall be based on, including freedom, equality, and respect for the rights of minorities. Many of the citizens that voted for their countries to enter the Union after the 1990s did so with the hope that their countri

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, as Vice Chair of the Delegation of to Central Asia, I would like to emphasise that the European Union considers the Kyrgyz Republic a partner, and we are committed to strengthening bilateral relations. That is why they have been part of the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences for several years, and that is why the EU signed an enhanced partnership and coope

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, I believe nowhere in our Union is the need for social dialogue more urgent, unfortunately, than in my home country, Estonia. Lowest collective bargaining coverage in the whole EU. Around 90 % of the workforce is not covered by collective bargaining and only 6 % are members of a union, so working people do not have their say as our economy is undergoing

Madam President, dear colleagues, Ombudsman, Commissioner, of course, I do have my speaking points. I left them on the table because if you have 15 speakers, everything was already said, right? So I will take a liberty to speak from by heart. I believe, Emily – sorry for calling you that – you might feel a bit like in the funeral. Everybody is praising you here and for good reason. You did an outs

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the question around the gender pay gap is sometimes the same: how can we encourage women to take part in the labour market? All I hear is 'how much more juice can be squeezed out of these lemons?'. All across the EU, women shoulder the majority of unpaid work such as cleaning, cooking and caring. Women spend weekly on average 13 hours more than men i

Mr President, colleagues, I could not imagine, even in a nightmare, that some day I would talk in this House about problems with the rule of law in my home country, Estonia, but here I am. A few months before local elections, the ruling coalition will urgently change the constitution, taking away the right to vote in local elections from more than 70 000 permanent residents, under the pretext of e

Mr President, dear colleagues, making mistakes is bad, being right is good. But today, in this room, I am very sorry that we were right. It would be better if we were wrong. It would be better if Parliament, demanding the criminalisation of rape, the consent-based definition of rape, was wrong. It would be better if all these stupid arguments of the blocking majority of the Council that our women

Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, the European Semester is an important exercise. I welcome wholeheartedly the Commission's proposal to adjust the employment guidelines, and include the importance of social progress and the need to combat social exclusion and discrimination. However, guidelines and recommendations, as good as they are, are not legally binding, and Member States have an ever

Mr President, honourable colleagues, security and defence are the keywords for this political term. But we tend to forget about growing social division, in-work poverty or marginalisation and social exclusion, not least the security risks and possible military action. I have to say, in the long term, maybe even bigger, because it can lead to unpredictable political turbulence, which will endanger

Mr President, dear colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the situation concerning the Estonian congregation of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is the largest religious congregation in Estonia, comprising more than 100 000 believers. We all know that the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate supported Russia’s war against Ukraine and called it the ‘Holy War’,

Madam President, in January, when we were already heavily negotiating on the directive, an article was published in the local Brussels newspaper. It was the story of Ernestine, an undocumented migrant who left her home country to flee from domestic violence. Ernestine was offered a place to stay in exchange for childcare without any proper pay. In fact, her so-called employer started demanding tha