What Deirdre spoke about.

Madam President, Commissioner, the right to repair – rather than the alternative to throw away or to replace something – that is going to be absolutely welcomed by consumers, not just because of a cost-saving measure, but also, importantly, because of the positive impact on our environment. It is estimated that EU consumers lose up to EUR 12 billion each year by opting to buy new goods instead of

Madam President and Commissioner, tomorrow, this Parliament will vote on the world’s first ever piece of legislation aiming to prevent spillages of plastic pellets at all stages along the supply chain. Losses of these plastic pellets, which are the base material for manufacturing plastic products, are the third largest source of unintentional microplastic releases in the EU. According to the Europ

Madam President, I won’t take two minutes, but with our vote today, Members, we can move to establish a single customs authority for the European Union – one agency responsible for overseeing our customs code, coordinating customs authorities across the EU, and providing support to our national customs authorities who supervise all goods entering and leaving the customs union 24 hours a day, 365 d

Mr President, thank you, Commissioner, and thank you to our rapporteurs and all the teams that brought us to this point. The final adoption of the Artificial Intelligence Act today is a historic moment. This landmark legislation is a significant step forward in our commitment to responsible digital leadership and creating an ethical future for artificial intelligence in Europe. It provides a robus

Mr President, the objectives of the Medical Device Regulation are not being met. It was developed to ensure patient safety, to give confidence to patients and medical practitioners that necessary devices were safe and fit for purpose, which I absolutely support. But there are problems with certification that is resulting in pressure on the sector to ensure availability of these necessary devices.

Mr President, this afternoon, we were part of an emotional exchange when we listened to the words of Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, the murdered opposition leader from Russia. In her words, he is dead, but his dream of a free Russia should not die with him. We must continue the fight for a free Russia. The fight against information, against lies, the fight against criminality, the f

Madam President, Commissioner, this report underlines our unwavering commitment to fundamental values amidst the worsening human rights situation across the world. We must acknowledge and honour all those who courageously defend democracy and human rights. Particularly at this time, we think of the brave people of Ukraine, the people in the face of war crimes, serious violations of international h

Mr President, the Medical Devices Regulation aimed to establish a robust and transparent framework for medical devices. It was welcomed by patients and by practitioners alike at the time, prioritising safety, health and innovation. However, after more than six years of implementation, the objectives of this legislation have not been fully realised. Short-term challenges – and I acknowledge there h

– Mr President, Commissioner, as we speak today, hundreds of workers and volunteers are working day and night to clean up those millions of plastic pellets that have washed up on their shores in Galicia. They are doing so because they want to protect their environment, their fishing, their shellfish industry and their livelihoods in the tourism sector. They’re asking questions, such as: how did th

Mr President, on this International Day, when we remember violence against women and we acknowledge that it does exist, we should think of all those women and young girls in war-torn conflict areas who are victims of unspeakable torture and violence. Violence against women in all its forms is a weapon of war, and is being used as we speak today as a weapon. Here in Europe, one in three women has e

Madam President, Commissioner, societies are facing unprecedented challenges in the form of disinformation and the rapid spread of illegal, misleading and harmful content and the DSA is a powerful tool that we can use to safeguard the integrity of information. The spread of disinformation poses a severe threat to the foundations of our democratic institutions: false narratives, fake news, misleadi

Mr President, I’d like to thank the Commission for their proposal here and thank you to our rapporteur and the other shadows for their work bringing us to this point. So this Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive will mandate countries to step up their efforts in removing harmful micro-pollutants. And we know that there is growing concern from consumers and from our citizens about the rising level

Mr President, thank you to our rapporteur and to all those involved. I welcome these new provisions for the financial services that have been provided in the Consumer Rights Directive. We are all living through digitalisation of our financial services, and we know that consumer protection rules must now be fit for the digital age. These new rules will provide for stronger protection for consumers

Madam President, the single market emergency instrument is a critical piece of legislation, and it not only draws on the lessons from COVID-19, but also equips the European Union to better prepare for future crisis. The pandemic revealed the inadequacy of national approaches to effectively tackle a crisis of such magnitude. We saw border closures, procurement hurdles and export controls. This Parl

Mr President, I thank the rapporteur and the shadows for this development to protect consumers in the credit market. It is really important and I really want to thank them for ensuring the inclusion of the right to be forgotten clause, which removes an obligation on individuals to disclose past cancer diagnoses to financial institutions such as banks or insurance companies, provided a certain peri

Mr President, Commissioner, it is clear that generative AI is coming at a speed like no other technology has: 100 million users in the first two months. Everybody with a smartphone or a phone can have access to ChatGPT. It has the potential to influence political discourse, shape public opinion and affect societal dynamics. While it can be a force for good through helpful automation, it also prese

Mr President, (start of speech off mic) ... our rapporteur and all those shadows that were involved in bringing us to this point. It’s important that we look back to learn the lessons and to provide recommendations to ensure that the next pandemic we encounter will not have such a significant impact on our health, our societies and our economies. Most importantly, we want to ensure that we will no

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, water scarcity driven by climate change and unsustainable practice poses a significant threat to a way of life here in Europe. The sight of empty reservoirs, stranded boats, previously submerged infrastructure is becoming more and more common. And as of April, over a quarter of the continent was in drought. And it’s likely that the situation will further deteri

Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, this is a ground-breaking piece of legislation. It is among the first global attempts to regulate AI, and AI has the capacity to solve the most pressing issues, including climate change or serious illness. And we want to lay the foundations for doing this here in the European Union. This law could become the de facto global approach to regulating AI and e

Madam President, AMR – antimicrobial resistance – is one of the biggest threats to public health today. The medicines that we use so widely and are so available, and that have had such an impact on our healthcare from minor to major illness, are becoming less effective as the bacteria that antibiotics are tackling are becoming increasingly resistant. We need more innovation and new developments in

Mr President, we need to support and enable businesses to act more sustainably and responsibly in their global and their EU activities. This proposal is a step towards doing that while also bringing legal certainty and a level playing field when compared to the existing situation, where there’s a varying degree of approaches taken across the Member States. Products and services that are a result o

Mr President, thank you to the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs for bringing us to this point. Consumers in the EU should be able to buy from anywhere in Europe or the world and know that the products they buy are safe. This needs to become the norm. Toys, motor cars, cosmetics, clothing and electrical appliances top the list of dangerous products found in the single market, and half of those pro

Mr President, as we can see, rising RSV, and cases of flu and corona have created enormous pressures on our health systems across Europe. And they’ve also highlighted a gap in terms of supply of essential medicines. The number of out—of—stock medicines in Ireland has risen to over 200 this week, and this is also in line with a pan-European shortage of critical elements that require a pan-European

Mr President, I think we should all acknowledge that the gaming industry plays a really important role in the European Union. In recent times, during the pandemic, we saw the real value of the industry in terms of the opportunity for socialising, for communicating, entertainment, the opportunities for jobs, businesses and also the real value in encouraging creativity and innovation. We see that 50

Mr President, since 10 October, Russia has been targeting air and missile attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine on a nearly weekly basis. These attacks have caused significant damage to Ukraine’s power grid and energy stations, resulting in countrywide blackouts, telephone and Internet outages, and loss of water supplies. Ukrainians are facing those attacks in sub-zero temperatures, with f