What Terry spoke about.

18 May

2022

EN Speech

Commission’s 2021 Rule of Law Report (debate)

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Mr President, I would like to thank a lot all the colleagues who have contributed constructively. I think it was a very good debate. Maybe we had some exceptions, but in general, I’m very happy about all the input and the very engaged debate that we have had. And I think that we can clearly see, and a lot of you have given examples for this, that the situation is challenging and that in certain pa…

18 May

2022

EN Speech

Commission’s 2021 Rule of Law Report (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, some of us, including me, have grown up believing that the global trend towards democracy and freedom only knew one direction – emancipating citizens from authoritarian regimes, strengthening the rights of all people in our societies, making Europe and the whole world a fairer, a more equal and a more democratic place. I must admit, colleagues, that I do not believe …

4 May

2022

EN Speech

The social and economic consequences for the EU of the Russian war in Ukraine - reinforcing the EU’s capacity to act (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, dear Minister, the President is right – European history will be written in Ukraine. That is why our support for a free European democracy against brutal Russian aggression is paramount right now. It is our historic responsibility to do everything possible to show this solidarity, including hard and far—reaching sanctions, and I’m happy to hear tha…

6 Apr

2022

EN Speech

Ongoing hearings under Article 7(1) TEU regarding Poland and Hungary (debate)

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Madam President, brave people in Ukraine are fighting right now in a brutal war, also to defend freedom and democracy. Ukrainian citizens are fighting for their right to live in a democratic system where the separation of powers means something, where fundamental rights and the independence of the judiciary will be safeguarded. Women are fighting for their own self-determination. LGBTI people are …

8 Mar

2022

EN Speech

The deterioration of the situation of refugees as a consequence of the Russian aggression against Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, yesterday I arrived at the main station in Berlin and, when I walked up the stairs, just like in so many other places in Europe right now, I could already see the stalls, the info desks and the many, many volunteers in their neon vests who were welcoming refugees there. And I could see the people, many of them loaded with bags, a lot of children indeed, who had arrived with tired fac…

16 Feb

2022

EN Speech

The Rule of Law and the consequences of the ECJ ruling (debate)

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Madam President, the Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. No secret agenda, no additional obligation, just plain and simple, what all Member States agreed on; in fact, what makes the European Union. Yes, the European Union is not just a single…

20 Jan

2022

DE Speech

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the European Union (topical debate)

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Madam President, Secretary of State, ! Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! For years, we have been witnessing massive attacks on the right to sexual self-determination in Europe – an authoritarian , trying to challenge our right to our own bodies. But besides all these attacks, there is also light in the darkness, not only in Ireland, but finally in Germany. I want to make it very clear again here…

16 Dec

2021

EN Speech

MeToo and harassment – the consequences for the EU institutions (debate)

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Mr President, ‘Me Too, yes, also I have been sexually harassed’. These were the words I started my speech with four years ago. When reports of sexual harassment also from inside of this house came to the surface, when millions broke the silence of what had been considered something you just have to be able to deal with beforehand. And yes, Me Too did change a lot. We now have a completely differen…

15 Dec

2021

EN Speech

Plans to undermine further fundamental rights in Poland, in particular regarding the standards of the European Convention of Human Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (debate)

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Madam President, patriarchy has always hated women. That is why we had to fight for every single millimetre to have control over our own bodies. That is why we still have to waste so much energy just to get what should actually be obvious: our body, our rights. Let us be clear: this whole debate has nothing to do with avoiding abortions. It is all about controlling women’s bodies. It is about the …

15 Dec

2021

EN Speech

State of play of the RRF (Recovery and Resilience Facility) (debate)

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Madam President, an illegitimate constitutional tribunal that undermines fundamental rights, that attacks the primacy of EU law, and that now declared that the right to a fair trial, as laid out in the European Convention on Human Rights, does not apply to Polish citizens. Judges being suspended for applying EU law. Prosecutors moved to the other end of the country simply for doing their job. I me…

14 Dec

2021

DE Speech

European framework for employees' participation rights and the revision of the European Works Council Directive (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Right-wing parties like to present themselves as the voice of the little people: against the lofty bureaucrats in Brussels and the hip big city chess. But if the little people themselves are to have a voice, if workers are to be involved in the huge transformation decisions of the economy that are currently in front of us, then suddenly we hear completely differ…

19 Oct

2021

EN Speech

The Rule of law crisis in Poland and the primacy of EU law (debate)

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Mr President, dear Prime Minister, dear colleagues, dear Commission President. Mr Morawiecki, despite what you have been saying today, I must admit that I have to ask myself the question after what happened in Poland in the last weeks and months, whether on 7 October, when this ruling was proclaimed by the Constitutional Tribunal, you actually did not secretly open a bottle of champagne together w…

7 Oct

2021

EN Speech

The state law relating to abortion in Texas, USA

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Mr President, a couple of years ago, I watched a documentary, it’s called ‘Trapped’, and actually, I recommend you watch it too. It’s about the situation of access to abortion in the US, and this was from before these kind of laws were passed. And there is one scene that I will never forget, it is a healthcare worker describing the situation, when a woman is calling the abortion clinic that she’s …

5 Oct

2021

EN Speech

The situation in Belarus after one year of protests and their violent repression (debate)

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Mr President, what is the most powerful weapon that dictators and autocrats have? It is not the tear gas they use or the water cannons, or even the machine guns of their brutal police forces. It is oblivion. People like Lukashenko want us to stop caring. They want us after months and months and months to turn a blind eye, to look away and not look at what is happening in Belarus anymore. Maria Kol…

15 Sep

2021

DE Speech

Identifying gender-based violence as a new area of crime listed in Article 83(1) TFEU (continuation of debate)

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Madam President, Every day a man in Germany tries to kill his partner or ex-partner. Every third day it happens. Every third day a femicide takes place in Germany alone. These are not family dramas or even murders for love. These are brutal patriarchal crimes that do not fall from the sky but thrive in a society where women are still subjected to constant sexism and violence. I was elected to this…

15 Sep

2021

EN Speech

Media freedom and further deterioration of the Rule of law in Poland (debate)

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Madam President, Igor Tuleya, Ewa Wrzosek,  Beata Morawiec: these are just three of the many people who have been targeted by the Polish Government over the past years. They were targeted because they were trying to defend rule of law, democracy, media freedom and fundamental rights. They were targeted because they were trying to defend EU values, EU law and everything that the EU stands for. They…

7 Jul

2021

EN Speech

Breaches of EU law and of the rights of LGBTIQ citizens in Hungary as a result of the adopted legal changes in the Hungarian Parliament - The outcome of 22 June hearings under Article 7(1) of the TEU regarding Poland and Hungary (debate)

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Mr President, Minister, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, when I wake up next to my girlfriend in the morning and I’m filled with happiness and gratitude, I sometimes ask myself, how can you hate that the two of us love each other? When I see beautiful pictures from gay weddings I ask myself, how can you hate this kind of joy? And when I see a young trans person living a life as their true, auth…

6 Jul

2021

EN Speech

The creation of guidelines for the application of the general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget (debate)

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Mr President, Parliament has again and again been pretty clear. First of all, the development of these guidelines for the regulation is actually not necessary as it is sufficiently clear as it stands. Secondly, the guidelines presented by the Commission unfortunately have little, or very little, additional value to clarification. Thirdly – and I must say this, Commissioner – suspicion is actually …