Mr President, Commissioner, well, nine years is a failure. Assassination, corruption at highest level. A wall of complicity. The role of media and investigative journalists attacked, the protection of journalists ignored, and the perceived sacraments of the response of the judicial system. All these elements, together, make this case not only a tragic event, but an unprecedented challenge to the r
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Pericles V exchange, assistance and training programme for the protection of the euro against counterfeiting 2028–2034 (A10-0256/2026 - Michael McNamara) (vote)
Madam President, Parliament has now adopted its amendments to the Commission proposal of the Pericles V programme. So, on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and pursuant to Rule 60(4) of the Rules of Procedure, I request that the matter be referred back to the committee responsible so that we can open interinstitutional negotiations with the Council on the basis
Mr President, Commissioner, corruption is not simply another form of crime. It's an attack on the institutions that citizens are supposed to trust. Fighting corruption requires consistency; there can be no culture of integrity if corruption is prosecuted on the one hand, while accountability is weakened on the other, because the perception of impunity can be as damaging to democratic legitimacy as
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The recent hybrid attacks and instrumentalisation of migrants in Ceuta and the need for a coordinated response to protect EU’s external borders (debate)
If you review the statements I have made as President of LIBE, you will realize that I have always valued European solidarity, with a legal order like the one we have adopted - which, incidentally, the Spanish Government voted against the Return Regulation, one of the essential pieces - secondly, with the funding that the European Union has offered and, thirdly, with the offer that the Commissione
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The recent hybrid attacks and instrumentalisation of migrants in Ceuta and the need for a coordinated response to protect EU’s external borders (debate)
Mr. President, the truth is that discussing the facts is delusional. And we have seen an example of delirium in denying the European condition of Ceuta and Melilla. Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish and will remain so. Commissioner, allow me some uncomfortable truths: the southern border is today the weak link in Europe. The Spanish Government has done absolutely nothing for the effective implementati
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Protecting children’s safety and mental health from the risks posed by social media – our duty to act now (debate)
Madam President, in recent plenary sessions we are having important and necessary debates, but, frankly, I believe that we have not yet made the protection of minors the shared political and legislative priority that would be needed. It must be said that either these debates are a call to action or they will only highlight our impotence to provide effective responses to the risks faced by minors i
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Recruitment of children by organised crime (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, in the last three part-sessions we have talked about threats and risks to children in the digital sphere. The contents of child sexual abuse, in one case, the cyberbullying in the last part-session and, today, the recruitment of minors by criminal organisations. This shows that we have a problem and it is a structural problem, with the risks and threats that the digi
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Rights, support and protection of victims of crime (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, thank you very much to all the Members who have taken part in this debate, to those who support our proposal and to those who have criticised this directive. I regret, however, that some of our esteemed Members have spoken more about criminals than about victims and I also regret that there is talk of ideological imposition, because I believe that it does not do just
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Rights, support and protection of victims of crime (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner McGrath, 10 million people become victims of crime every year in the European Union, and huge numbers of these crimes go unreported, and thus victims remain unprotected in themselves, and justice systems and law enforcement are badly affected. Also we see fragmented legislation at the national level, with uneven treatment for victims and very different standards in prote
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The need for targeted criminal provisions and platforms’ responsibility to effectively address cyberbullying and online harassment (debate)
Yes. Once the interim regulation expired, the DSA is probably the only legal instrument that we can use, but it is insufficient. We need a specific regulation concerning the specific risks, threats and the measures to protect minors. That is what we are doing. But in the meantime, I think we should consider measures to prevent any legal gap in the detection and reporting of child sexual abuse onli
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The need for targeted criminal provisions and platforms’ responsibility to effectively address cyberbullying and online harassment (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, if we are having this debate today, it's because we do feel that neither the European Union nor Member States are providing the right responses, or at least are providing them in the right time. Technology seems to be outpacing us as if we were unable to address the reality of our children's digital lives. And yes, we need to to take decisions. Let me put an example,
Mr President, Commissioner, less than three years ago, in Poland, a political change led by the People's Party opened the way for Poland to reverse the deterioration in its rule of law. A few days ago, in Hungary, a political change also led by the People's Party, makes it possible for it to follow that same path of full reunion with democratic values. That means that we must ask that the Commissi
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Importance of consent-based rape legislation in the EU (debate)
The problem was not a law, the problem was a bad law that was promoted from his political party. Look, I've just been co-rapporteur on the new Victims Directive. What I think about all these issues is the Victims' Rights Directive that this Parliament will soon adopt and of which I am particularly proud as co-rapporteur.
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Importance of consent-based rape legislation in the EU (debate)
Mr. President, if there is no consent, there is rape. But the affirmation of this principle has to lead us to do things well, also from a legal point of view, because we have, for example, in the case of Spain, a tragic experience of a bad regulation of rape and sexual assault that had to be rectified, but which meant the early release of more than a thousand rapists and sexual aggressors. This is
Madam President, Commissioner, our rapporteur – whom I thank for her work – said that ‘corruption kills’ and indeed corruption kills democracy, corruption kills trust in institutions and corruption kills equal opportunities. We have a valuable legislative instrument that can certainly be better and more ambitious, but I want to denounce the imposture of those who criticize it for n
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Child sexual abuse online: protect children, not perpetrators (topical debate)
Mr President, yesterday in this Chamber, we listened to the heartbreaking testimony of a mother, Jackie, whose daughter Coco fell victim to online bullying. Heartbreaking testimony, indeed, but also challenging to us as legislators. What are we going to do about it? What do we intend to do about it? Because right now there are thousands of children going through the same torture that Coco suffered
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Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1232 as regards the extension of its period of application (A10-0040/2026 - Birgit Sippel) (vote)
Mr President, Madam Vice-President, in 2023 there were 400 000 irregular entries into the European Union. In 2025, 178 000. These developments show that, when the institutions of the European Union align themselves on the same objectives, we achieve results. We have seen it with the Pact on Migration and Asylum, we see it with the visa suspension mechanism or with Frontex agreements. Well, we know
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Situation in Venezuela following the extraction of Maduro and the need to ensure a peaceful democratic transition (debate)
Madam President, Madam High Representative, I am among those who feel no regret that an autocrat has been removed from power in Venezuela, a corrupt autocrat at the head of a repressive regime that has led to the exile of one in five Venezuelans and has led the country to unprecedented misery. But I am also among those who feel a serious concern about the possibility that the interests enunciated
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Tackling AI deepfakes and sexual exploitation on social media by making full use of the EU’s digital rules (debate)
Madam President, the challenge, I think, is clear: we must prevent that AI becomes a child sexual abuse machine. In 2025, the international Internet Watch Foundation identified 3 440 AI videos of child sexual abuse, compared to only 13 in 2024. So in terms of policy, we need urgent action on the exploding spread of CSAM online, and that is why we are negotiating with the Council the CSAM regulatio
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EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024 (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, with this report we take an important and meaningful step for the future of disability rights in Europe, and I would like to commend the work of our rapporteur, Rosa Estaràs, along with the political groups. Over the past years, the EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities has made considerable progress, showing what is possible when we strongly uphold