What Jana spoke about.

17 Jan

2024

EN Speech

Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2022 and 2023 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, with the consent of Mr Aguilar, I will be very slow. First, I would like to thank the rapporteur and the shadows for the good cooperation on this report. Fundamental rights are the foundation of the EU. It is good that we do this exercise every year evaluating the situation on fundamental rights in Europe. I believe that this report paints a realisti…

16 Jan

2024

EN Speech

Activities of the European Ombudsman – annual report 2022 (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues Commissioner, Ombudsman, as a member of PETI for the past almost ten years, I have followed closely the activities of the Ombudsman and I can say without a doubt that her commitment to transparency, accountability and the promotion of ethical standards within the EU institutions are truly commendable. So when Madame O’Reilly takes the rare step of asking the EP for form…

2 Oct

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, dear colleagues, in these 60 seconds, I want to tell you about a woman who is not allowed to visit her blind father, a twin sister who cannot see her disabled sibling, a woman who cannot visit her brother who is dying from cancer – all of these people are relatives of Estonian citizens, and all of them live in Russia. This is the impact of our visa ban, which on paper has a lot of…

12 Jun

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, I feel a bit uncomfortable for, as a mother of five, I would like to full-heartedly support colleagues’ call for maternity leave, but I had an absolutely different topic to address. Sorry, but I wish you good luck. Statelessness affects over half million people living in Europe and more than half of them come from Estonia and Latvia. Our governments say that these people are prote…

9 May

2023

EN Speech

Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence – EU accession: institutions and public administration of the Union - Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence - EU accession: judicial cooperation in criminal matters, asylum and non-refoulement (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, finally we are making a real step to protect women and girls against violence. While there is a serious lack of data, it is estimated that 3 232 femicides have been committed over the period between 2010 and 2021 in 20 Member States. Femicide means the killing of a woman by an intimate partner and the death of a woman as a result of a practice that i…

14 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: EU accession (continuation of debate)

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Madam Chair, dear Colleagues. Commissioner. Today we again call on the Member States to ratify the Istanbul Convention. It is shameful that six Member States have not ratified it: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. Even more worrying are the declarations from governments to withdraw from the convention, like in Poland. It is therefore important that the Council proc…

13 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in European Parliament elections - Electoral rights of mobile Union citizens in municipal elections (debate)

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Madam President, I would also like, like other colleagues, to stand here and talk about all the good points that we have agreed on, like requiring electoral information to be available in more languages, asking more countries to automatically enlist new residents as voters and removing old and useless derogations. But I also have to remind you of hundreds of thousands of Europeans who are left beh…

15 Dec

2022

EN Speech

The 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, let me quote a few sentences from the Declaration: ‘States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity [...]’; ‘[...] the right to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without [...] discrimination’; ‘[...] adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have ins…

14 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Deliberations of the Committee on Petitions in 2021 (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, as all technical things were, fortunately, already said, I can allow myself to be a bit more general. First of all, I would like to thank the rapporteur and the other shadows for their collaboration on this report. Secondly, I have to admit that the Petitions Committee is actually my favourite in this House, for this is the place where you hear the real voice of r…

12 Sep

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, colleagues, nine months ago in December 2021, Alexei Navalny’s daughter, Daria Navalny, received the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize on behalf of her imprisoned father. Since then, we in this House expressed many times our solidarity with tens of thousands of his supporters. We questioned the fairness of Russian elections. We expressed our support to the peaceful anti-war protes…

7 Jul

2022

EN Speech

Better regulation: joining forces to make better laws (debate)

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Mr President, first of all, I have to thank the rapporteur, Tiemo Wölken, for his excellent job, as always. In this House and together with the Commission and the Council, we adopt a large amount of legislation every year. Just in the past two months, we can recall some important examples like the DSA, DMA, ETS and CBAM last month, so it is very relevant that we reflect on the way we approach law-…

4 Jul

2022

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, I will continue the line of Tatjana Ždanoka. ‘Collateral damage’ – I’ve heard this expression pretty often after the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. ‘Collateral damage’ was said about Russian human rights defenders, who now have huge difficulties with visas, with status, with payments, as they are somehow ‘suspicious’. ‘Collateral damage’ to Russian students w…

9 Mar

2022

EN Speech

EU Citizenship Report 2020 (debate)

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Mr President, I should like to thank the Commissioner, all the colleagues and of course all the shadow rapporteurs. I apologise that I didn’t thank you in the very beginning, I did have a feeling that we are approaching the end. But in my closing remarks, I unfortunately have to address the letter sent this evening by a group of MEPs regarding tomorrow’s vote, in particular with a concern that we …

9 Mar

2022

EN Speech

EU Citizenship Report 2020 (debate)

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Mr President, European citizens are one of the success stories of the European Union. It is proof that we are not just a group of countries, but a Union based on common values and principles. But every success must be protected and not taken for granted, such is the case with freedom of movement. The notion of a borderless Europe is second nature for hundreds of millions of Europeans, and yet so m…

15 Dec

2021

EN Speech

Deliberations of the Committee on Petitions in 2020 (debate)

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Mr President, many things have already been said, so I have to admit that the Committee on Petitions is my favourite committee, despite the fact that this is non—legislative. It is direct too and speaks to our citizens. It’s absolutely great. In some countries, this is very popular, like in Spain, for instance. In some countries, like my home country, it’s still not that popular, but still every y…

13 Dec

2021

EN Speech

Combating gender-based violence: cyberviolence (debate)

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Mr President, this is the second time this year that here in the Parliament we directly address the issue of gender—based violence. This time we turn our attention on the digital forms that gender—based violence can take. During the past two decades, and especially during the last two years, we all have moved more and more of our lives online. The same can be said about violence against women and …

10 Nov

2021

EN Speech

Strengthening democracy, media freedom and pluralism in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, we definitely all agree that media freedom and pluralism are the cornerstones of democracy, not less than the rule of law or respect for human rights. And it’s absolutely unacceptable if those who hold a position of power or have great financial resources use their power against those who want to speak out. In most cases, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) ar…

15 Sep

2021

EN Speech

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

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Mr President, President von der Leyen has made a big promise today to women and girls in Europe. She will propose a law to combat gender—based violence: from prevention to protection and effective prosecution, both online and offline. That is a big promise, considering that already in October 2015, the Commission had promised a framework for combating violence against women. The EU’s accession to …