What Alin spoke about.

It is necessary to debate the Commission Work Programme in the European Parliament. However, we know that citizens feel disconnected from the EU decision-making process. In the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe, I did a tour of my country to discuss with citizens about their expectations from the EU. One of the takeaways from this tour is the fact that citizens want to be listened

It has been 10 years since Romania officially met the Schengen accession criteria following certified evaluations, including by the European Parliament and the Council, in June 2011. However, accession is blocked for political reasons, which have nothing to do with predetermined criteria. Changing the rules during the game is unacceptable and should not be part of the tools used in a rules-based U

Madam President, first of all, I am glad that we have reached this agreement on the European Digital Wallet after three years. I think it is a tool that will revolutionize the way we interact with state authorities, but also with companies. We will be able to access public services and have all our documents at hand, directly on the phone. This means eliminating queues at the counters and wasted t

Mr President, there have been many good ideas, but I want to mention only a couple of the ideas that were mentioned here. So the first one is that somehow citizens’ participation causes the fact that representative democracy weakens. It’s not real. This is not what we intend to transmit through this report, but the opposite. It is not by chance that representative democracy and the trust in politi

Mr President, dear colleagues, yesterday, during the State of the Union, we listened to President von der Leyen speak about transformation and reform. But the loudest part of yesterday’s speech was the one that we didn’t hear, the one about citizens and democracy. One could say it was more like a State of the European Union bubble. It was a discussion between us, more Brussels people and Strasbour

Madam President, dear colleagues, first of all, I am pleased that we are having this debate about how the European institutions are performing on Europe Day itself, and I think we should start by saying that, in general, our institutions are working well, as is apparent from most of the reports that we are discussing today. The European Union delivers results, delivers peace and welfare and contin

Madam President, first of all, of course, I thank the colleagues in the team of rapporteurs with whom I have worked very well to have this text on the table today. A lot of the devices we use today produce data, from simple objects like smart bulbs, of course, to the most complex ones like cars or airplanes. At the moment we only use 20% of all this data. If users and companies had, they could use

– Madam President, we have over 13 million mobile citizens in the European Union, one third of whom come from my own country, Romania. All these people can also be ambassadors of the European Union, because they are the ones who benefit most directly from the benefits of European citizenship. Unfortunately, only a third of them are aware of their right to vote or stand as candidates in local or Eu

Madam President, 2021 was indeed a difficult year, with multiple pandemic crises. The European Investment Bank has played an important role in supporting the supply of vaccines, health infrastructure and, of course, companies that have been severely affected. The crises, obviously, are not over, but on the contrary, have multiplied and that is why we still need the EIB to be at the forefront to su

Mr President, Austria's veto against Romania's accession to Schengen has created a wave of shock and frustration in my country. A shock to the monument of injustice done and a frustration because the European Union, in which they trusted, allowed such a thing. Unanimity is an anachronistic reminiscent of the beginnings of the Union that cannot function in 27 countries. Or, more specifically, it ca

Mr President, the title of this report is very well chosen: "Let's join forces to improve legislation". I believe that in order to have better laws, we must first join forces with the citizens. And, rightly, it is no longer enough to involve citizens only once every 5 years, when there are elections. I think it is time to create a mechanism for permanent consultation with citizens that is part of

Madam President, it has already been said here, the last few years have been difficult and the European Investment Bank has done its duty to help combat the effects of the pandemic and now the war. The bank invested in finding vaccines and anti-Covid treatments, but also in keeping the economy on, say, the waterline. And thank you for that, Mr. Hoyer. However, there are a few areas where there is

Madam President, 2020 has been a year of many challenges, including for the institutions and agencies whose work we are looking at today. The vast majority knew very well how to adapt to the pandemic and help Europeans, each in their own field. Problems have persisted and continue to persist. One that I would say is widespread is that of major geographical and gender imbalances at staff level, esp

Madam President, there was a lot of excitement in this hemicycle a few days ago, when the conclusions of the conference were adopted. People hugged and congratulated each other after a year of work. A mother came with her baby a few months ago and told us about the future of Europe. It is precisely the emotion we need to give Europe a new soul and breath. For me, there are two lessons to be learne

Mr President, Commissioner, a few months ago I visited the high school I graduated from. Do you know what the students told me? They told me that they feel under immense pressure, because of the false standards that social media imposes, that they feel alone, because they have been too isolated in their homes because of the pandemic. We have known for some time that the age of speed in which we li

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, European farmers are worried about fuel, fertiliser or feed prices, and citizens are rightly worried about food prices. At times like these, we realise how important it is to have a common agricultural policy that ensures our food security. We now have a duty to use all these tools at our disposal at European level and to support our farmers, not only to pr

Madam President, Commissioner, the exceptional times we are living in call for exceptional measures. Firstly, no euro from the European Union budget should reach beneficiaries from Russia or Belarus. That is why we must establish a general ban on European money, including from cohesion policy, being able to reach companies or other beneficiaries in these countries in any form. Secondly, we already

Mr President, Commissioner, I believe that if we think about the future of agriculture, we must have three main objectives in mind: how we reduce emissions and pollution, how we produce healthier food, how we regenerate the countryside. The agreement on the new common agricultural policy that we have on the table is not perfect, but it responds satisfactorily to these challenges. Firstly, we have

Madam President, we throw away almost 100 million tonnes of food a year, while millions of people cannot afford a decent meal. We produce food per tonne, in intensive farms, while local farmers struggle to sell their products. We are constantly pushing the boundaries of the environment as we wonder why we have more and more fires or droughts. I think it is time to get out of this hypocrisy and acc

Madam President, we are in a period of reflection on the future of Europe, and I would like to say one thing to you: The Europe of the future does not have to be an ATM where you extract money without giving anything in return. European citizens expect something different from us, they expect us to build a Europe based on values, respect for democracy and the rule of law. That is why this respect

President Hoyer, we need the European Investment Bank to help Europe successfully go through the green and digital transitions, and we also need the EIB to continue to play its traditional role as an investor in the infrastructure and cohesion of the Union, and I believe that these two roles do not contradict each other, but must go hand in hand. And this is very clear when we talk about the Just