What Nela spoke about.

Mr President, in France, a 16‑year‑old boy left his house to demand a classroom that lets him imagine a future. Instead, he came home without an eye. A 15‑year‑old lost his hand; a 14‑year‑old has a broken jaw. Now they are facing riot police because they asked for heating, for a dry ceiling and for enough chairs to sit on at school. Politicians answer with even more budget cuts, because young peo

Madam President, on the same day that Navi Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize, Washington sanctioned the International Criminal Court, that very court where she served as a judge. So, the very court that is responsible to pursue war criminals like Benjamin Netanyahu is now being silenced by Trump. This forces the rest of the world to make a decision: do we let the powerful get away with their crimes

Madam President, I am glad that the Commission is finally catching up on what we, parents, have known for years: that leaving our kids to fend for themselves against addictive digital platforms is a massive mistake. The EU KIDS Act can be a real breakthrough – with one clear standard all across Europe, we can finally stop platforms from treating our children as raw data. But protecting children is

Madam President, every morning, across Europe, us parents drop off our kids at school with the same hope: that they will grow up safe, curious and ready for the world. But right now, from Rome to Saxony-Anhalt, far‑right governments – also aided by the conservatives – are trying to turn our classrooms into battlegrounds. Pushing laws that sort children by their background, they want to teach our k

Mr President, since the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, for the first time I question whether there is a safe future for me and my children in Germany or if we should build a life somewhere else, and I know I'm not the only one feeling this grief seeing fascism rise all over Europe. I worry about the nurse in Italy who may no longer provide reproductive healthcare, about the teacher in Germany who may

Mr President, first of all, thank you all colleagues, for the collaboration on this resolution. I put it on the agenda because we urgently need decisive action to save lives in Sudan – 33 million dependent on aid, 19 million facing hunger, and now the siege on El‑Obeid that will escalate this crisis, especially for women and children. It's remarkable how easily some in this House pretend to care a

Mr President, before I came to this Parliament, I was a schoolteacher in Germany. And back in my home country, we make sure children deeply study the darkest chapter of our past so they never, ever question the horrors of what happened. But we only succeed as educators if we get students to think beyond the specifics of one era. Because that's exactly what people do to avoid accountability: they h

Mr President, this report sets a nearly impossible task: naming and addressing the many crises and contradictions we face at UN level. Today, I want to draw attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to those who risk their own lives to actually keep others alive. UNRWA provides education, medical support and aid to millions of Palestinians. It is a lifeline, and I was able to visit it myself i

Mr President, if you don't understand a story, you cannot spread it. Sudan is living the most brutal war the world has seen in decades. But because it's Africa, the conflict seems as too complicated, so it disappears. In reality, it's a simple story. One, there is a brutal civil war going on for years now, where sexual violence against women and girls is systematically used as a weapon. Two, inter

Madam President, after four years of brutal war in Ukraine, Russia is being welcomed back onto the world stage – the Paralympics last month, the upcoming global swimming championships and the Venice Biennale. Readmitting Russia to these events does nothing but send a cynical message of accepting war on our continent – a message of softening the sanctions because of what? Because it's been so long?

Madam President, colleagues, we all agree: for different reasons, right now Global Gateway does not work. Not for local populations, who are not consulted on how to actually implement projects sustainably, not for companies or implementing partners, who actually lack coherent benchmarks for success, and not for people, whose water sources are polluted by extraction every day and infrastructure pro

Mr President, last year, Trump signed an executive order to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court. In other words, Trump made an official threat against a legal body investigating war crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity. Trump clearly just doesn't like people investigating genocide. But colleagues, Commissioner, we do not care what Trump likes or does not like. We ca

Mr President, dear colleagues, thank you for the many very interesting remarks during this debate. I am genuinely glad to see that the European Semester is a topic that sometimes stays in the shadows, but does attract so much attention in this House. Because, in the end, it touches on one of the most fundamental political questions: how we spend our money. The question is particularly timely. As w

Madam President, dear colleagues, I am glad that we are having this debate on the European Semester report today. We talk a lot about the MFF, which is only 1 % of the EU GDP, but we don't talk about the elephant in the room: the national budget. This is arguably the biggest leverage that we have for change in terms of public money. While leading the negotiations on this report, I realised that in

Mr President, nearly three years into the brutal war in Sudan, civilians are still paying the price not only of violence, but also of international inaction. As lawmakers, our responsibility is very clear: we must stop treating this war as a distant internal conflict. This is a proxy war fuelled by external actors and militias that profit from chaos. The EU must support peace negotiations that gen

Mr President, if Trump can snap his fingers and take rights away from European citizens on our very own soil, then something is wrong. This is not hypothetical. Trump has placed two Europeans, one UN official and one ICC judge, on a sanction list – a sanction list that is usually reserved for terrorists – simply because they did their job. They insisted that international law be applied to everyon

Mr President, as I speak here, innocent people in Sudan continue to be executed, bombed, raped or left to starve, for over two years now. Yet today is the first time we are talking about the extent of this crisis in this House. Let us say it how it is – the suffering of people in African countries has been normalised for far too long. The world has grown numb, as if starvation and violence are som

Madam President, good morning everyone, our cultural sovereignty is not for sale, our film industry is not for sale. The President of the US talks about 'making Hollywood great again', but the problem isn't investing in the American film industry, it's trying to do it on our dime and against our laws. Threatening Europe's cultural rules is not acceptable. Our laws protect creators, children and in

Madam President, imagine this: you are called into the office and told 'we have to let you go'. You ask why and they answer 'headquarters decided'. No warning, no explanation, no chance to say a word. Yet, you are the one paying the price for decisions made miles away by people who have never set foot into your work. Decisions that change your life and your future. That is not fair and that is not

Madam President, Why is it that we talk so much about and so little about the Palestinians? You notice that I almost miss the words, today, October 7, when I think of the suffering of the October 7 massacre and when I think of the suffering of the genocide that began thereafter. How is it that a picture of the Israeli military has been almost uncritically taken over in the German media for two yea

Madam President, young people do not care about politics. All that they care about is Instagram and TikTok. Really? The truth is, young people around the world are flooding their streets to demand change now. In Serbia, students demonstrated for democratic freedom. In Nepal, they stood up against corruption and nepotism. In Morocco, they demand investment in education and also healthcare. What abo

Madam President, have you noticed how military language has become very common these days? You just heard it again this morning, I guess, and you may like that or even dislike that but the truth is, our daily lives are being weaponised. Across Europe we see how hybrid warfare undermines our societies. Russia's disinformation tries to destroy our trust in democracy itself. If we want to defend Euro

Mr President! What does it mean when media freedom erodes in the heart of Europe? With the EMFA, the EU has made a clear commitment to safeguarding media freedom. But according to Reporters Without Borders, journalists in Germany are increasingly under fire. They are experiencing attacks on the open street from the right, they are experiencing censorship, they are experiencing political pressure,

Madam President, what is the most important EU value to you? To that question, young Europeans answered: human rights, democracy and peace. Eighty years after World War II, these values are still our most important heritage. But as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shown, peace and democracy are not a given – they call for a commitment. A commitment to not remain silent when extremist regimes delib