Speeches

The S&D Group has notified the President of Parliament of a decision relating to changes to appointments within a committee. The decision will be set out in the minutes of today’s sitting and takes effect on the date of this announcement.

Mr President, I’ll be really brief, and I’d like to reiterate my thanks to the shadow rapporteurs and everyone who worked on this report, and also thanks to everyone who participated in this debate. I want to add one more thank you, which I forgot in the in the first intervention, and that is to the MeToo activists here in the European Parliament and beyond for keeping the issue on the agenda. Now, also to speakers who voiced criticism and who might perhaps not vote in support of the draft report, I would say that it is perhaps better to think less in terms of ideological frameworks and more in terms of the victims and the pain and the suffering that they are going through, and what can we do in practical terms. The report has a lot of it. What can we do to minimise that pain and to minimise the number of victims, at least here in the European Parliament. I share the frustration with many of you who’ve mentioned that we’ve been here before, we’ve had similar reports before and we’ve heard similar statements before. My only reply to that would be that the stronger the majority for this report and for the recommendation that it contains, the stronger the political pressure for those who can enact those changes to actually do so. Finally, just remarking if people who are watching this debate and who might have been subject to sexual or psychological harassment, I would ask you to speak up and Parliament will stand by you.

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, dear colleagues, it is indeed a privilege for me to introduce to you this draft report on sexual harassment and MeToo evaluation in the EU, and not just in my capacity as rapporteur, but also as a father of a three year old daughter, and therefore someone who cares deeply about the kind of society and the kind of environment that she and girls across Europe will grow up and live in. Now, our draft presented to you focuses mainly on the situation in the European institutions or in the European Parliament, but it is important to bear in mind the wider context and culture where harassment is still prevalent in many of our societies. And the problem, of course, is quite clear if you look at the figures and, although sexual harassment and harassment as such affects all Europeans, 90% of victims are women. And 55% of women in the EU have been sexually harassed at least once since the age of 15. And much has been spoken about and written about this issue especially, and thanks to the MeToo movement more than six years ago. But words, colleagues are not enough and we must do more to eliminate any and all forms of harassment. And we owe it to the victims, not just here in Parliament, but across the continent. And we owe it to the next generation of Europeans. Now, I would, at this point, like to thank so much all the shadow rapporteurs, all the policy advisers, the assistants and the external experts, because this is a joint product and it is a product of a very constructive work both before and during the vote in committee. The draft report addresses all the core issues and indeed has carried a broad majority in the committee with no one voting against it. And I am especially glad that most of the groups and all the democratic groups have cooperated on this report and that we’ve been able to find a consensus that can bring us closer to an EU free of sexual harassment. I should also add that this is not the first resolution of this kind in this mandate. And it is true that many of the commitments from previous resolutions, commitments we have made to the victims here in the European Parliament, and indeed to all Europeans, to combat all forms of gender-based violence, that many of the commitments are yet to be fulfilled. And with this report we hope to close that gap. We propose several clear and easy or quick to implement solutions first and foremost. We as Parliament should put in place zero-tolerance policies that reflect the pain suffered by those who are subject to harassment or abuse. And the draft contains also many other measures, recommendations on anti harassment measures to the European Parliament, to the institutions, but also to Member States governments. I personally think that the crucial aspect and the crucial thing, at least here in Parliament, but more broadly, is to break the silence of the victims who need our complete protection and support. Because, as we all know, cases here in the European Parliament are still under-reported, which means that existing both formal and informal channels of reporting need to be strengthened because – and this is also why it is important that we focus on the European Parliament – the EU institutions must lead by example here. I understand and I know that it is not always easy to implement systemic change. It is seems difficult at the beginning, but I’m glad to see that many bodies and colleagues here in the European Parliament are working on this, the advisory committees, the Quaestors, the High Level Group on Equality, the EP’s own Bureau, but also the working committee in AFCO are engaged in this work and are carrying it forward. And I really do hope that by endorsing this report with a strong majority, we can help end discrimination and gender-based violence here in Parliament and in Europe. Thank you so much.

The next sitting will take place on Tuesday 9 May 2023 at 09.00 in the morning. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament’s website.

I apologise Mr Novakov, the English interpretation got lost for the last 20 seconds or so. All the interpretation, in fact. I think it was just for the final few seconds.

The next sitting will take place tomorrow, Thursday 30 March 2023 at 09.00 in the morning. The agenda of the meeting will be published and is available on the European Parliament’s website.

Before closing the meeting let me apologise to every one of you for the technical difficulties to all colleagues but also the interpreters, whose fault it wasn’t but also had to work under hard conditions. We do hope that this will not happen again anytime soon.

Apologies, colleagues, we should now be able to resume. It was a general problem, none of the interpreters’ booths were hearing the room. So it was not just about Croatian. We now continue with the debate on the Commission statement on the rights of children in rainbow families and same-sex parents, in particular in Italy.

I’m really sorry, we will need to suspend for a minute because apparently the Croatian interpreting booth is not well connected to the other language booths. I do apologise – this is not sabotage against Croatian MEPs! You can trust me. We will suspend for a minute or two and then resume once the connection is established. Thank you, and I do apologise. (The sitting was suspended at 20.15 for technical reasons.)