What Birgit spoke about.

Madam President, When it comes to protecting children, we talk a lot about age limits, age verification. But what problem do we solve with it? A child does not become safer by the fact that the platform knows his age. The real problem is a business model that wants to retain attention for as long as possible – through endless scrolling, notifications, personalised recommendations and much more. Th

Mr President! Ceuta: More than 140 people lost their lives in this tragedy. At the same time, Europe will be put to the test: False information, manipulation and violence are inhuman attempts to destroy our foundation, our social cohesion and weaken us. Reflective accusations, pointless border controls add oil to the fire and undermine the trust of our citizens. And none of this offers real answer

Madam President, Imagine that a child opens an app only briefly. The algorithm has only one goal: maximum length of stay, maximum profit. Like a pull, it draws children and sometimes adults deeper and deeper into echo chambers, where they only hear what they want to hear and believe what the algorithm shows them. Emotional, extreme content is rewarded, facts, nuances, doubts are buried. The algori

Madam President, Severely traumatized, they cope with their arduous everyday life and yet find no peace. We are talking about survivors of serious crimes. All too often they are left alone with the physical, psychological and financial consequences. And again and again they are even contacted directly by perpetrators. Unannounced. Unexpected. Legal? Unfortunately, yes. And that will remain the cas

Mr President! A report on fundamental rights in the EU should be positive. Unfortunately, the negotiations were difficult due to opposition from the right, the text could have been stronger. The compromise is acceptable and thus received at least a broad majority. But our fundamental rights are under attack, eroded – in the Member States, but also here. So there are unbearable amendments for tomor

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Just two weeks ago, this Parliament adopted a position by an overwhelming majority, with the participation of, among others, EPP, S&D and Renew – a position based on facts and the concrete experience of five years with the transitional regulation. We have taken responsibility for the protection of children while respecting fundamental rights. An

Mr President! 2026 – a crisis year. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is not coming to an end, it seems to be increasing in aggression. Donald Trump uses violence in his own country as a means of pressure, ignores international law, ruthlessly puts the axe to transatlantic cooperation. The Iranian regime is attacking its own people, but the Conservatives think of nothing better than start

Madam President, AI – Freedom through innovation? In fact, we see innovation without responsibility, power without accountability. AI chatbots like Grok's are a systematic violation of dignity and fundamental rights. They are trained to undress, sexualize, and force images of real people into poses they never agreed to. Women are degraded to objects, children to digital victims. A thousand times.

Madam President, Respect for our values is a prerequisite for EU membership, and they must apply in practice. Conditionality is designed to protect our budget when breaches of the rule of law put it at risk. And that this mechanism is lawful has been confirmed by the European Court of Justice, and it is also in the interest of our citizens. Funds must not go to governments where courts no longer d

Mr President! Discrimination is prohibited. Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights is clear. But hate crime and hate speech are on the rise across the EU, both online and offline. Laws are being pushed that specifically discriminate against and criminalize minorities, such as so-called Gay-propaganda-Laws and PrideBanned in Hungary. This is how fears are stirred up and how people are to b

Madam President, With a large majority, Parliament and Member States have adopted a new asylum system and clearly: Shared responsibility and solidarity are essential for successful implementation. It is not a positive start for the Commission to ignore legally binding timelines, but it is good that it has now come out of the coup and presented its report on the migration situation and solidarity.

Madam President, Two people meet, whisper, exchange documents. What sounds like a scene from a spy movie was a bitter reality, according to research by investigative journalists. From 2013 to 2018, Hungarian intelligence services are said to have set up an espionage network in EU institutions and attempted, under diplomatic cover, to recruit EU staff to share confidential information. According to

Mr President! Freedom and security are under pressure. There are hybrid threats, cyberattacks, extremism and fears of social insecurity, exclusion, hatred and hate speech, both offline and online. More than ever, we need police and authorities who work on a case-by-case basis, who are technically, personally and in their training at the level of the times. This also includes a wide range of skills

Madam President, With ever new measures, Orbán discriminates against or oppresses people in Hungary. At the same time, discrimination, hate speech and violence based on sex, sexual orientation, colour, religion, disability, age and poverty are on the rise across the EU. The fact that Ms von der Leyen wants to withdraw the Equal Treatment Directive right now is an attack on the fundamental rights o

Madam President, An analysis of the rule of law situation in all Member States once a year is an important tool. But at the same time, the results of the 2024 report clearly show that: We need more than one report. The EU institutions – above all the Commission as guardian of the Treaties – must finally use all the means at their disposal to defend democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights

Madam President, 40 years of the Schengen Agreement – how did it come about and why is it still important today? After centuries of war, after the Second World War, another idea finally prevailed in Europe: talk to each other and yes, also argue with each other in order to find common interests and solutions; This is invaluable, especially in the face of current crises and wars. At the same time,

Mr President! The European Court of Justice has clearly ruled: Golden passports are a mere marketing of EU citizenship status and are therefore incompatible with the basic concept of EU citizenship laid down in our Treaties. And I add: Golden passports and golden visas are simply special rights for the rich. All too often they are linked to corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, and they endan

Mr President! In 2020, the Commission presented its last Internal Security Strategy. At that time, we were still at the very beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Russian war of aggression on the entire Ukraine seemed unthinkable, the extent of hybrid threats, targeted misinformation and manipulation was hardly conceivable, the destruction of democracy as a result of Donald Trump's second ter

Madam President, The return of people to their countries of origin is part of a functioning asylum system and here we need to become more effective – I agree with Commissioner Brunner. However, in view of the proposal presented today, this may seem to me to be the only point on which we agree: Restrictions on legal remedies, in part possibly contrary to our fundamental rights, the massive extensio