What Lucia spoke about.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, this Parliament is right to invest in what matters to Europeans: students through Erasmus+, innovation through Horizon Europe, the fight against financial crime through a stronger EPPO and nature protection through LIFE. But a people‑centred EU budget must also protect fundamental rights, especially when national governments fail to do so. And women's hea

Madam President, dear colleagues, Europe is facing the most insecure times in generations. Russia is intensifying attacks on Ukraine. Our infrastructure is being targeted. China is rightly identified by this Parliament as an enabler of the Russia's war, and we can unfortunately no longer rely on American security guarantees. People are afraid and people are scared. And what are we doing here? We a

Mr President, High Representative, I have just returned from the West Bank and Israel, and let me tell you, the situation is much worse than what we have discussed today. We must clearly condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks, but we cannot turn a blind eye to the Israeli Government's response. Former Israeli soldiers described to me clear orders to intimidate Palestinian civilians and protect illega

Mr President, thank you to everyone who has spoken in support of this package. I expect it will receive broad, cross‑group support tomorrow, and it should, because on the question of security, this House has been much more united than the governments we have negotiated with. Where the omnibus package as a whole falls short is the lack of harmonised rules for intra‑EU transfer licences and procurem

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, I believe that after what we just heard and the past few months, every European understands why we need to make sure that the EU has the capabilities to protect itself. We have seen Russian drones over our airports, our infrastructure sabotaged, arson in our cities, and that is just a taste of what might be coming. Europe needs to speed up its own

Madam President, High‑Representative, Trump and Netanyahu claim that the strikes on Iran, Lebanon and Palestine would deliver security. Instead, an entire region is in flames. None of the ceasefires so far have held and civilians across the Middle East are paying the highest price, so no wonder everybody is a bit sceptical. And now, the war is spilling into Lebanon: Beirut is under fire, more than

Madam President, thank you for this debate, but I must address the attempts to really turn the victims suffering into some kind of cheap ideological battleground. You from the far right, stop using women's suffering for cheap political points. It's enough. Once again, you have been bluntly lying here, pushing the idea that the violence against women somehow comes from outside or from other culture

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, tomorrow the European Parliament will vote on something very, very powerful: the kind of support any of us may need in the darkest moments of our lives. Tomorrow we are set to vote and adopt the revised Victims' Rights Directive: the most important reform of victims' protection in Europe in more in more than a decade. It is important because every year, almo

Dear colleague, I am wondering why are you shouting here at us? That's my first question to you. And second question: did you read this report? Did you read this report, because it is about the fundamental rights of all Europeans – women, men, all the people that are living here. So please let us know if you had even spent five seconds of your precious time – instead of shouting at us, instead of

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, firstly, I would like to thank the rapporteur and shadows for this comprehensive report. Sadly, it is confirming that, over the past years, rights in the European Union have been eroding, and we are calling for the corrections. What have we learned? That the rollback of fundamental rights is not accidental: it happens when governments, and many groups here a

Madam President, Commissioner, we have two reports before us today that are very clear: If Europe wants to protect itself, it is not enough to spend more. The events in the world show us that we need a genuine European Defence Union, not 27 fragmented national systems, not fragmented efforts, but we need to act as one. But we also have to say b): The money of all of us for common defense must not

Mr President, the report we have negotiated shall represent the EU's position on gender equality globally, at the UN in New York. And do you know what resonates there these days? Why we must be loud and clear about women's rights? The Epstein files. They expose how rich and powerful men – often with traditional values – abused girls from across the world, and how their position, influence and mone

Mr President, we have a big strategy ahead of us to prepare the Union for an era of drone threats, and I do not need to reassure you today that we support such a strategy and that we need it to be ambitious. And especially at a time when we are talking about a break-up or a shaking of transatlantic security at its foundations. Obviously, we have a different problem. For example, we in Slovakia hav

Mr President, dear colleagues, abortion is healthcare. Women are dying because they were denied it even when they wanted to continue their pregnancy – you know it? Abortion needs to be available because rape survivors must have the right to decide over their own bodies. If today some countries are still failing to provide this, Europe must step in – I am very much convinced about that. I saw the r

Mr President, in the coming year, the budget of the European Union will be EUR 192.8 billion. The European Parliament has not backed down and has won more than has been proposed by both the Commission and the Member States. And we managed to raise 372 million euros more. And this money will go to areas that really improve people's lives across Europe: research, transport, energy, health, environme

Madam President, we have been talking about supporting the European defence industry for years, but we are still not ambitious enough. We are not fast enough because we obviously do not listen to warnings about how Russia is preparing for Europe. And even EDIP comes in just five minutes twelve. Even the height of EDEIP is far from sufficient. Because we still clearly don't see that together we can

Madam President, 'gender equality is supposedly ideology', 'we have had enough of equality for a long time', 'feminism is destroying the workplace and society': this is what we are hearing recently, especially from the far right and from populists. These words are designed to provoke fear and to provoke resistance. But the reality is actually completely different, and we've heard it: 1 in 3 women

Thank you for that, Damian, it is not an easy question! What we are trying to do in Renew is to find precisely the right balance, because we cannot have prosperous regions and prosperous people if we do not have prosperous agricultural policies in Europe. So I understand that it's a difficult thing to do for us, but we cannot just go on with some pushes, neither if it's from agricultural conglomer

Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, when I became a Renew coordinator for the budget about a year ago, I knew one thing: we do not have the climate for major treaty changes, but we certainly can shape Europe through the next MFF. We have this huge opportunity. However, today, seeing what's ahead of us, I fear that we've lost that ambition – ambition for the EU to be more than a mere conduit fo

Madam President, yes, gender-based violence costs lives and it must be addressed. As a co-rapporteur of the Victims Rights Directive, I am doing everything I can to stand up for victims of violence. But what also must be addressed are politicians who are fuelling violence against women. Far right: don't fool the people, because are you really talking about protecting women? I see that in 2025, we

Mr President, Vladimir Putin has no right to be in Ukraine, and he has certainly no business to be in Budapest. He is a war criminal. Period. He belongs before an international tribunal, colleagues. Those that are already trembling with excitement roll out the red carpet for him, right? Many of you, Mr Orbán, Mr Fico, they are not defending peace. Because – let me speak also for millions from cent

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the 2026 budget is not just about figures – I hope we know it. It's about Europe's future. It's about the promises that we make to our citizens. We, in Renew Europe, fought very hard to secure hundreds of millions more for research, for innovation, for health and for defence. These are investments that protect and empower Europeans. But I turn to Member Stat