What Mercedes spoke about.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank all my fellow Members who have worked on this important directive, which, in line with the European directive, will be crucial to achieving the objectives of sustainable consumption and climate neutrality. As has already been mentioned, the Goods Repair Directive will have important positive repercussions in ma

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the report reminds us that climate change produces disastrous natural events on our territories. Avoiding or reducing all this must be a shared responsibility and must be based on principles of realism and pragmatism. To increase resilience, it is necessary first of all to ensure the hydrogeological protection of the territory starting from mountain areas, th

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the data on inequalities in the world are worrying and describe an increasingly concentrated wealth, while millions of people live daily in conditions of hardship and hunger. As the Commissioner recalled, 5 billion people have become poorer in the last three years. The Sustainable Development Goals, the beacon of our development policies, seem increasingly

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, as you can see, we in the S&D Group are passionate about this issue. There is no doubt that the Global Gateway is of absolutely strategic importance to us for its way of looking at the rest of the world, forging alliances, but also for creating new synergies together with international partners that are useful to everyone. For it to be effective, i

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the need to strengthen European citizenship also depends on greater cohesion in the places of political representation and democracy. In this sense, the European Parliament and national parliaments are natural allies to reinvigorate the Union's democracy through better parliamentarisation of the decision-making process. This had also been indicated by the Confer

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, at this historic moment, with strong international instability and enormous environmental, economic and social challenges before us, we need a Europe that is strong, united and capable of making important choices. Choices that obviously need to be legitimized and driven by a clear democratic will and a strong and participatory relationship with the citizens.

Of course, we can do so in matters that fall within the competence of the European Union, because only together can we make the future history of this continent. Think about it, otherwise we will come out completely, as the philosopher Habermas says, from the future history of the world. And the legitimate power of each of us derives from our citizens as well as that of the states. I agree with yo

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, with the proposal to reform the Treaties, this Parliament has the responsibility and - I am sorry for colleagues - also the legitimacy of taking a fundamental step for a Europe that decides and protects its citizens, to strengthen our European democracy and make Parliament a greater player, including through the power of legislative initiative. There is a n

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, last September's summit in New York was certainly an important opportunity for budgeting and raising awareness of the state of the art of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, it has shown us how far we are today from the now imminent date of 2030. For this reason, together with awareness, however, the commitment to an acceleration must be renewed

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, democracy and European citizenship are valuable assets that we must never take for granted. Never before in this time of war in the heart of Europe have we felt its strength. We arrived through slow passages, often tiring, but our journey is certainly not over here. We need to improve and strengthen our democracy, its practices, its institutions, s

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it is clear that this year will be absolutely decisive for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and that we must, with due frankness and a good deal of realism, analyse the shortcomings and address their contradictions. Today, just over six years after the 2030 deadline, we realize that we are, unfortunately, far from the goal, and that on som

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately, we are gradually getting used to seeing our territories devastated by natural events of exceptional proportions: floods, droughts, melting glaciers, phenomena that disrupt the lives of populations but also devastate productive activities, produce victims and mourning. The list of these episodes is long, it was recalled: the floods of July 2021 in

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, our democracy and the free and participatory processes by which we express and practice it are a very precious asset, we must not take it for granted and we must defend it in every way. The Commission's report on foreign interference shows that we have entered the era of awareness. But it is not enough to be aware. We must urgently close the gap