What Liesbet spoke about.

Smoking is a deadly habit. Every year, as many as 700 000 deaths in the EU are linked to smoking. This is a devastating reality that we can no longer ignore. We need to reduce tobacco consumption. That is beyond doubt. However, the danger of smoking does not stop at the smoker himself. Second-hand smoke also has a huge impact on public health, especially among vulnerable citizens or children. That

Mr President, who will benefit from this chaos, from the riots in the streets of Paris and Brussels? These are the extremes on both sides of this Parliament, because they thrive all too well in such a climate of polarisation. More than that, they are all too happy to influence those rioters. They are the ones responsible here. The riots we saw this weekend are separate from any form of legitimate

Mr President, dear colleagues, it is time that the EU becomes a project of hope again. We all need it in these very turbulent times. Colleagues, preventing people from getting cancer means providing hope. Every year, around 120 000 workers in Europe are diagnosed with work-related cancer. These are people who simply went to work and became seriously ill by it. I am proud to say that we reached an

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, every day women get up earlier and go to sleep later for work they do, but that is not counted. No pay, no pension rights and no recognition. Care responsibilities are still unevenly distributed today. For example, Belgian women spend 9.5 hours more on these tasks each week than men. As a result, they also have 6 hours less free time per week than

Mr President, unfortunately there is not much to celebrate today, on World Day for Safety and Health at Work. I quote from a number of Belgian headlines from the past period. 13 April: ‘Supplier in Brussels public transport died when he ended up under a cupboard’. On the same day: ‘In Flanders, a window-placer was seriously injured after falling under a window’. And two days later, on April 15th:

Mr President, 188 subcontractors for one yard: That's a bit of a good thing too much. However, figures show that this is indeed the case. Now let us be clear about one thing: Subcontracting is important and legitimate. It's part of our economy and employment. A lot of companies work correctly in this way and a lot of people earn their living. Too often, this is not the reality today. We all rememb

Mr President, on the international stage today it is foolish, foolish, foolish. They are trade tariffs and fall back on the self-interest that strikes the clock. And that brings Europe into an existential crisis. It is urgent that Europe becomes much more assertive. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on military strength. But what we do have, unique and very powerful, is an economic weapon, our market

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a social Europe is not an unnecessary luxury today, because we are living in a time of multiple crises. However, we must pay particular attention to the needs of our citizens and families. What do they need to feel safe when a war is raging at our external borders? What is needed to achieve the climate goals? What concerns do our citizens have, particularly in t

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, health is a basic right and we have been talking for months about preparedness against the military threat on our eastern flank and the economic threat on our western flank. Of course more than rightly so, because defence and economic independence are two essential pillars of our Union and they deserve a lot of attention and resources. However, hea

Mr President, Commissioner, every day we see that the world order is shifting and that international cooperation is becoming increasingly difficult. As an EU, we will have to be strong for strategic sectors and do our own thing. The same goes for the pharmaceutical industry. Because every day, healthcare providers and patients experience shortages of medicines. That's a big problem. The geopolitic

Mr President, Commissioner, everyone is entitled to the best possible and closest care. Of course, you need a caregiver for that. And that's where the shoe really sticks today. The figures are quite dramatic. We are short of more than a million doctors, nurses and midwives and by 2030 no less than one in three of them will retire. At the same time, the number of patients in need of care is on the

Mr President, our oceans are choked by microplastics and our rivers are clogged with plastic waste. Our food also contains harmful chemicals that can be linked to plastic. According to the OECD, if we continue along this path, we will be moving towards irreversible environmental damage. The figures are staggering: By 2040, we would produce 60% more plastic and plastic waste in our oceans would hav

Mr President, the reprehensible and offensive statements of the extreme right here in this plenary session unfortunately underline it once again: we have seen that the rights of LGBTQI people have certainly been reduced in recent years, including here in Europe. It looks like the clock is being turned back. Under the guise of "neutral education" and the "protection of traditional values", books ar

(NL) Mr President, Commissioner, the green transition and artificial intelligence: That sometimes worries our people and businesses. That's understandable, too. It is up to us, the policy, to provide clarity and certainty. As a European Union, we are at a crossroads. We rightly have the most ambitious climate legislation in the world, but our economy is lagging behind because we do not offer enoug

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 17 October was the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Such a day is of course very important. Even more important is that we pay attention to people in poverty every day. Poverty should never be a taboo. The figures on poverty in the European Union are truly worrying. I therefore welcome the EU strategy against poverty announced by the President o

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in recent years we have seen that more and more families are struggling to make ends meet and that housing costs are taking up an increasingly important part of the family budget. For many families, whether they are two-income or single parents, but certainly also for young people, it is often simply no longer possible to buy your own home. We ther