What Evelyn spoke about.

This brings us to the debate on the Council and Commission statements on the elimination of violence against women (2022/2951(RSP)).

Madam President, More protection, more investment, more resilience – this is what Member States are asking Europe to do. But what do they deliver? cuts. And that's like wanting to top up a house and supplying less brick. Thus, no house, and certainly not the House of Europe, holds. And as if that were not enough, there is also a mortgage on it, namely the repayment of the reconstruction fund. Wher

Mr President, Madam Executive Vice-President! Lower incomes, lower pensions and a persistent gender pay gap: These structural inequalities are faced by care workers, around 80 ‑90 % of whom are women. What does it look like at home? At home, unpaid care work is once again largely dependent on women – after work is before work. For many women, free time is nothing more than a shift change. Many the

Madam President, Again and again we hear: man or market, quality jobs or competitiveness. But that is not Europe's way! We need a well-functioning, i.e. a single, unfragmented internal market for the people. Quality jobs It is only possible to have one, too. quality economy, enable competitiveness first. That is why we put people at the heart of our European economic model – not the cheapest wage

Madam President, dear colleagues, the completion of the banking union is long overdue. And let me be clear: we need it more than ever now. A fully functioning banking union must include the European deposit insurance scheme as its essential third pillar. Our banks have a crucial role to play in financing the green and digital transition. They are well capitalised and they are reporting record prof

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Only a yes is a yes, otherwise it is rape – point. Off. Basta. It's always about the same thing, about self-determination over one's own body, and those who don't understand it are invading. "No" - that's not a word, it's resistance. But it's not just about the right to say no. It is about changing power relations, because a sexual assault is always also the exe

Mr President, Madam Vice-President of the Commission! These days we talk a lot about competitiveness – then please also about fair competition! Should we not better protect our companies, our SMEs from unfair competition through sub-sub-contracting of competitors? Particularly in high-risk sectors such as construction, work is systematically outsourced. The responsibility that wanders down the cha

Madam President, Madam Vice-President! Poverty is often lonely. Poverty creates shame among those affected – completely unjustified. Poverty is unfair. And even work does not always protect against poverty. There are millions working poor, including many women – especially single parents – who keep our single market running. We are often sold that it is a great – often entrepreneurial – freedom fo

Mr President, Commissioner, harassment, sexual harassment can affect anyone, anywhere. Essentially, it is what happens afterwards. Is the victim taken seriously? Are the systems in place? And do people in power take responsibility? In the European Parliament we have been dealing with these questions for years, yet only managed to get some improvements. And why? Because especially the far right and

Mr President, Madam Virkkunen! Tax fairness – this sounds technical, but at its core it is about something very human: for justice. That is why large corporations make a fair contribution, that small and medium-sized enterprises are not disadvantaged and that success in Europe is based on innovation, not on tax tricks. Let's face it – our current tax system is fragmented, complicated, unfair. Comp

Mr President, Commissioner! Thank you very much to the rapporteur for this report, Mr Hadjipantela. Taxes are our common contribution to a just and solidarity-based society. If corporations are always looking for new loopholes and unfortunately also find them, but small and medium-sized companies often fail at forms, then something is going enormously wrong. We need a tax system that is simple, fa

Madam President, Commissioner! A company without employees is nothing more than an empty factory hall, an open-plan office without people, a dead site, a standstill. It is the employees who make the difference – their ideas, their daily work. This is the engine of economic success. And works councils are the voice of employees. European works councils ensure that participation does not end at the

Madam President, Commissioner! Congratulations to the rapporteur, Aurore Lalucq, who has managed to produce a balanced report on the Investment and Capital Markets Union, in a context that is certainly not very simple. The report clearly shows: If Europe wants to stay strong – and we all want that – then we need to put a tooth in it. We need investment; Investments that benefit everyone, a true Ca

Where is the question? I mean, I'll try to figure out the question out of that, but as I get it, what we need is real equal treatment of everybody in medicine. Our situation is like this: we're living in patriarchy and, therefore, women's health is not taken seriously enough. That's what we have to work on and, of course, this has to be applied with everyone – every single person in society.

Mr President, Commissioner! Imagine you're in so much pain every month that they determine your life, and no one takes you seriously. This is how millions of women with endometriosis do it. 10% of all women of childbearing age are affected. However, many people don't even know the term. The path to endometriosis diagnosis takes an average of six years, accompanied by pain, misdiagnosis and the fee

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, we are once again witnessing a debate hijacked by national interests misusing the European Parliament for partisan gain. Frankly, it's irritating to watch the Spanish Partido Popular point fingers while refusing to confront their own records. From Gürtel to Bárcenas, Spain has seen institutional decay under conservative leadership. Allegedly, the PP eve

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, In times of great uncertainty, Europe has shown courage. With the Recovery and Resilience Fund, i.e. the RRF, we have not only responded to the pandemic and the energy crisis, we have invested with billions. Cohesion and the future were poured into figures, into an investment instrument. Where markets fail again, Europe has acted. Where people lost their jobs

Madam President, Eighty years ago, the Second World War ended. Europe was in ruins. Eighty years ago, the foundations were laid for a Europe of peace. Thanks to the European Union, we have been working together ever since. ‘United in diversity’ – our EU motto also goes back to the spirit of Lagerstraße in Austria. So that millions of us Europeans will never die again in camps, in our own homes, on

Mr President, Commissioner! What is the value of the EU passport? Is it a promise to the rule of law, to peace, to freedom? Or a dubious business model, a special right for oligarchs? When individual Member States sell EU passports, they are not just selling a document, they are selling the protection of our values and trust in Europe. As we impose sanctions on Russia, the very ones we want to san

Madam President, Madam Vice-President Mînzatu! The Union of Skills, the Union of Skills, this is a good start; We want to support you in this, but we want to continue. We need a European right to further training, a right that gives workers the opportunity to use their working time to increase their skills without losing their wages and costs. We are in the midst of a change in the labour market,