Speeches

Madam President, dear colleagues, Ombudsman, Commissioner, of course, I do have my speaking points. I left them on the table because if you have 15 speakers, everything was already said, right? So I will take a liberty to speak from by heart. I believe, Emily – sorry for calling you that – you might feel a bit like in the funeral. Everybody is praising you here and for good reason. You did an outstanding job, and it was our privilege to work with you. So I believe that what we have to do, we have to draw our lessons, and there were a lot of lessons, which we can go ahead with after working with you regarding transparency and all these keywords we have already mentioned here, but the main challenge is to make the right choice tomorrow, because Emily O'Reilly is really leaving behind pretty big shoes to fill. And let's, colleagues, make our choice, let's be conscious and let's think about O'Reilly's legacy, and fingers crossed that the next Ombudsman will be up to this task.

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the question around the gender pay gap is sometimes the same: how can we encourage women to take part in the labour market? All I hear is 'how much more juice can be squeezed out of these lemons?'. All across the EU, women shoulder the majority of unpaid work such as cleaning, cooking and caring. Women spend weekly on average 13 hours more than men in unpaid work, while spending less time in paid work. Annually, women work the equivalent of eight full-time weeks more, while earning less. The situation becomes even worse with an increasing ageing population. This is a societal problem reflected in outdated policies in many countries where there is no early childcare available because it is the norm that mothers stay at home. In many countries, there is limited elderly care and even a legal obligation for the family to take care of the elderly. It is women who pay the price. What we need is the Member States to invest in care and make it available so that women can have a break and finally work the same amount as their male counterparts and have the same amount of income.

Mr President, colleagues, I could not imagine, even in a nightmare, that some day I would talk in this House about problems with the rule of law in my home country, Estonia, but here I am. A few months before local elections, the ruling coalition will urgently change the constitution, taking away the right to vote in local elections from more than 70 000 permanent residents, under the pretext of ensuring security. We are talking about citizens of Russia and Belarus. These people are not newcomers. They have lived in the country for three decades. They pay taxes. Every third, according to a recent study, is ready to defend Estonia with weapons in hand. This is a lot because other 40% are old people. Moreover, according to the Estonian Internal Security Service, there is no reason to assert that these people pose any kind of threat. Thus, we are dealing with a purely political decision that has nothing to do with the stated arguments. The principle of rule of law excludes an urgent change of the laws on the eve of elections, especially under farfetched pretexts. So please take this intervention as an early warning. I will definitely bring it to the attention of the newly appointed Commission. Europe just cannot afford another violation of the rule of law, one of the cornerstones of European democracy.

Mr President, dear colleagues, making mistakes is bad, being right is good. But today, in this room, I am very sorry that we were right. It would be better if we were wrong. It would be better if Parliament, demanding the criminalisation of rape, the consent-based definition of rape, was wrong. It would be better if all these stupid arguments of the blocking majority of the Council that our women are already protected turned out to be true. But today's protests in France, the Gisèle Pelicot case, speak louder than any words, and this time we are obliged to hear them. We like to argue that Europe has to set an example on this and that. But how, for God's sake, can we set an example for someone else in the world if we are not able to even adopt legislation to protect our own citizens in our own territory? It is shameful that national selfishness, arguments about EU interference in the legal system of Member States and other nonsense have taken us so far. The women of Europe pay a really high price for this irresponsible rhetoric. This is our duty and the duty of the new Commission and the Council to finally make Europe a safe home for every woman and girl.

Mr President, honourable colleagues, security and defence are the keywords for this political term. But we tend to forget about growing social division, in-work poverty or marginalisation and social exclusion, not least the security risks and possible military action. I have to say, in the long term, maybe even bigger, because it can lead to unpredictable political turbulence, which will endanger the Union we are committed to defend. That is why we express our full support for the G20 presidency's proposal to introduce a tax on the wealthiest individuals as a means to address poverty and reduce inequality. The G20 report highlights that trillions of dollars are held offshore escaping taxation. These funds, if properly taxed, could be directed towards essential investments in education, healthcare and services to lift people out of poverty. While proper taxation of larger sums is important, it is part of a broader approach, which includes windfall taxation on excessive profits, such as those recommended by the Commission in 2022. And we must also advocate for a progressive income tax system across all Member States, ensuring that contributions are proportionate to one's ability to pay. The EU, as outlined in the Treaties, has a responsibility to promote social justice. Let's do it.

Mr President, dear colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the situation concerning the Estonian congregation of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is the largest religious congregation in Estonia, comprising more than 100 000 believers. We all know that the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate supported Russia’s war against Ukraine and called it the ‘Holy War’, which is absolutely disgusting and condemnable. And this is exactly what the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate did: it officially condemned this idea of holy war. But unfortunately, this is not enough for the Estonian authorities. They continue to insist that the words of the Moscow Patriarchate cast a shadow of terrorism on the Estonian Orthodox believers, and seem to want to legally dissolve the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The EU is based on the principle of protection of freedom of religion and belief, and we should not interfere in religious and ecumenical matters. I hope that it will not eventually be done in Estonia, and that is the reason I do bring this extremely sensitive issue to your attention. This is kind of an early warning, and I want to hope an unnecessary one, but we’ll see tomorrow.

Madam President, in January, when we were already heavily negotiating on the directive, an article was published in the local Brussels newspaper. It was the story of Ernestine, an undocumented migrant who left her home country to flee from domestic violence. Ernestine was offered a place to stay in exchange for childcare without any proper pay. In fact, her so-called employer started demanding that Ernestine contribute to bills and rent. When she reached out to help, she was recruited to work at a vegetable shop for EUR 2 per hour. Her employer would demand rent money from her because he let her sleep in the corner of the shop, that way he kept her indebted. This is not far away from home, this is in Brussels. Ernestine and many vulnerable persons are being recruited in order to be exploited and tricked into cheap labour. The update of this directive takes more measures to protect victims by introducing early detection and specialised assistance. It also provides for more opportunities to persecute perpetrators by introducing measures for legal persons, aggravating circumstances and punishment for those who knowingly use services from trafficked persons. Trafficking is not only the crime, it is a blatant violation of human rights.

Mr President, dear colleagues, 10 days ago, in this very room, we adopted a resolution condemning the murder of Alexei Navalny, Russian citizen. Among other important things, this resolution says we should not mix up Putin’s regime and Russian people. But these were only words because in fact, we do not make the difference. There is a saying in Russian: fear has big eyes. And if one looks at a Russian passport with these big eyes, he would not be able to make the difference between Putin and a random Russian pensioner living in the EU. So right now, Latvia is preparing to deport almost 1 000 Russian citizens who used to be permanently residing in the country for three decades because they did not pass the language test, which was not the condition to get permission to live in this country back then. These Russian citizens are not living in ghetto. These are members of the families of Latvian citizens, mostly their grandfathers and grandmothers. I already brought this issue to the attention of the Commission, but it seems that the words ‘Russian’ and ‘rights’ cannot be put now into one sentence. Fear does have big eyes. What a wonderful gift to Russian propaganda.

Mr President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, I am speaking here on behalf of the Committee on Petitions, but I’m also inspired by the teacher strike which ended in Estonia a few days ago. After several days of strike, our underpaid and overworked teachers got a salary increase of EUR 17 per month. And I am speaking about the country which, according to PISA tests, remains on top of EU ratings. There is a critical need in our societies for high-quality education to prepare pupils to lead successful, fulfilling lives and contribute meaningfully to their communities by providing them with relevant educational experiences, developing practical skills, acquisitions and problem-solving abilities, as well as by fostering critical thinking, creativity and adaptivity. The aim of the oral question we are discussing today is to address one of the challenges faced in attaining high-quality education. Namely, the situation of teachers and of the teaching profession in the European Union, as the teaching standards are closely linked to the resources made available to them, their training opportunities, as well as to the roles they are asked to fulfil. The reality we are confronted to nowadays is that the EU faces an ageing teaching population, the difficulty of recruiting and retaining qualified teachers, severe teacher shortages especially in rural areas, inadequate salary levels, the lack of collective bargaining agreements, as well as accentuated psychological pressure related to increased levels of violence in schools, bigger classroom sizes coupled with often decreased quality of infrastructure and multiplied administrative tasks assigned to them. The Committee on Petitions has received several petitions highlighting these aspects in recent years, the most recent one having been discussed last autumn in the Committee. In light of these discussions, it is imperative that we address the following questions: what is the assessment of the current state of working conditions of teachers in the European Union, and the effects on the quality of education and the transmission of fundamental knowledge? Which are the instruments the Commission makes available to Member States to assist them to implement relevant improvements in school education systems, considering the evolving demands of the labour market and correlated education needs, and necessity of continuous professional development and upskilling, as well as the importance of infrastructure investments? Which are the strategies the Commission foresees for levelling up the prestige and attractiveness of the teaching profession, including in rural, outmost and depopulated areas, to fight against negative demographic trends? How is the Commission encouraging the development of clear career prospects and attractive pay for the teaching profession? How is the Commission monitoring the implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions in relation to the teaching profession in the EU? Which further actions does it intend to take to guarantee the full compliance with its provisions, including as regards the right to collective agreements?

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 realistic picture, raising concerns on press freedom and media pluralism, rule of law and justice, hate speech and violence, including gender-based violence, but also the increase of poverty, inequalities and social exclusion in the EU. The report calls on the Commission to act and to intervene where fundamental rights are being breached. But it also calls on the Member States to be proactive. This means that national parliaments, national and local administrations and specifically law enforcement have a duty to promote and protect our fundamental rights. Without proper implementation, our yearly exercise will have no impact. Therefore, I call on this House to support this call and to put pressure on other governments.

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 formal support to get the European Commission to reduce systemic delays in dealing with requests for public access to documents, I believe we must give this support. I have personally made requests for access to documents in the past, and I understand how difficult it is to get a clear and complete answer. It is discouraging to see the results of the specific inquiry into the time taken by the Commission to reply to requests. When it comes to asking the Commission to review its initial decision, receiving an answer above the 30 day legal limit has become the norm, not the exception. This makes it clear that we are dealing with the systemic problem in how requests for access to documents are answered. As Parliament, we have to follow up on this issue and make sure that the Commission takes action without delay.

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 humanitarian exceptions, but in practice has not. A week ago, we discussed similar situations of 29 Estonians in the Committee of Petitions, but the European Commission did not do its homework. They did not even ask the Estonian authorities to look into particular cases. They once again limited themselves by asking the government ‘Are you alright there?’ and got the usual answer of ‘Yes, we are fine’. In this House, where the worst human rights are almost the most often pronounced expression, this is at least strange because human rights is not an abstract concept but the rights of every individual person, even if we don’t like them. I do understand that the European Commission does not have a mandate to conduct investigations in the Member States, but what you must have is the political will to ask proper questions and to deliver answers to Europeans who rely on you.

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 protected in the same way as citizens, which is not true. And now we see how Estonia learns to deport stateless people to Russia, not only violating human rights and international legal norms but also the EU long-term residency directive. Five days ago, Zoya Palyamar, a 63-year-old stateless person, was deprived of her residence permit and received an entry ban to the Schengen zone for ten years. Now, while I am speaking to you, she sits somewhere in Petersburg with no money, no clothes, no documents and nowhere to go. Tens of thousands of stateless people of Baltic states are learning the lesson: nobody cares. I blame the Estonian Government but I also blame the European Commission, who knows perfectly well what was going on in my home country, Estonia, and who is doing nothing. The Commission did not even show up at the huge international conference in Madrid, organised by the European Network of Statelessness, last week, while the United Nations and Council of Europe did send representatives. If this was a political signal, the signal is clear: we accept leaving people behind if these people are stateless.

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 is harmful to her. One in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence. One in four young women aged 15 to 24 years who have been in a relationship will have already experienced violence by an intimate partner by the time they reach their mid-twenties. This is unacceptable. Women and girls in the EU and the entire world need the safeguards from the Istanbul Convention. But tackling gender-based violence is not easy. Simply criminalising rape, other forms of sexual violence and physical violence is not efficient. It requires a holistic approach which revolves around supporting the victim and punishing the perpetrator. The Convention recognises violence against women as a violation of human rights and a serious form of discrimination against women. It obliges parties to criminalise psychological violence, stalking, physical violence, sexual violence, including rape, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, forced abortion, forced sterilisation and sexual harassment. It further obliges to invest in education, training for experts and treatment programmes for perpetrators as a part of the prevention of violence and to establish appropriate support services ensuring victim protection. These obligations are not too much to ask. This is what the women and girls need, and I am counting on this House to support the accession to the Convention. And I would also like to take the opportunity to also ask the Council to do right by our women and girls and ensure the swift accession.

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 proceed with the EU accession so that we can be part of the convention as a whole. This process has been ongoing since 2015 and many of the children who suffered under domestic violence back then are now adult people. Do they still have faith in Europe? Not so sure. I welcome the initiative of the Commission and the proposal for a directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence. But it is not enough. There is so much more which needs to be done. We need preventive measures such as education, support services and protection measures, financial assistance, psychological support, helplines, shelters, access to social housing, support for children, assisting the victims to continue living safely in their home through easy access to restraining orders, especially support for children. And visitation rights for children and needs to be addressed, as do the civil issues such as consequences of forced marriage. The list goes on. We need to start addressing these issues and accession to the Istanbul Convention is of utmost importance.

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 behind. Hundreds of thousands of stateless people in the Baltics do not have the right to vote in national and European elections. The non-citizens in Latvia do not have the right to vote, even in local elections, and I’m speaking about the people who were born and raised in that country. In this House, we pride ourselves on the democratic mandate we get from Europeans. We say again and again how much we believe in democratic participation, yet our ambition with these voting rights paint a different picture. I hope that the next time we review these rules, we ensure that everyone permanently residing in Europe, everywhere in Europe, is entitled to vote. And I very much hope that we will not wait another 28 years for that.

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 instruction in the mother tongue’; ‘National policies [...] planned and implemented with due regard for the legitimate interests of persons belonging to minorities’. This is awesome. I mean, this is awesome. And I’m really happy to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Declaration. The only thing which overshadows joy is the fact that being – or I will say staying – Russian from Estonia or Latvia, you have nothing to do with all these wonderful statements. No free use of language, no education, not even due regard. I know that in some Member States minorities are taken as decent members of the society, but this is not the case everywhere and will not be the case until we as the Union become part of this declaration.

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 real Europeans. And you know what? Europeans are very well aware of their rights. Almost everyone knows about the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, but very few realise that it is consistent with Article 51, which says that the Charter has to be followed only when European law is implemented, which in practice means that the national legislator is not supposed to follow or even to read it. So in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, we, as a rule, declare these petitions inadmissible, despite the fact that very often we see clear violations of people’s rights. The Commission says, ‘no worries, we have some other tools in our toolbox’. One of them – widely promoted – is the Citizens’ Initiative. So we urge people to use it. But do they receive a proper answer? This might not be the case. We all remember what happened to Minority SafePack: nothing. I mean, nothing happened. The Commission just does not dare to touch the hot potato of minority issues. Do you think all these more than a million Europeans who gave their signatures to support national and linguistic minorities are still pro—Europeans? Let’s hope they are, despite the fact that here at PETI we clearly see all these bottlenecks of the European project when it comes to human rights. Of course, there is a lot to be improved in the committee itself: a common set of clear and objective criteria, a petitions portal with clear information on what exactly falls under the Union’s fields of activity. We have to stop misusing PETI for internal political issues, which unfortunately takes place sometimes. But the main thing to improve is the European Union as such. If we prefer to limit ourselves to common market and border policies, we would not be able to meet the expectations of our citizens.

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 protesters across the country who were detained by Russian authorities. But now we turn a blind eye towards the unprecedented initiative of three Baltic States and Poland, who are blaming for Putin’s regime all the Russian people, including those who we believe are victims of propaganda, false elections and police violence. As of 19 September, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland agreed not to let through their borders any Russian citizens holding tourist visas issued by any Member State. This decision does not only erase all efforts made by Russian opposition, but also clearly violates European law, particularly the Schengen Borders Code. I urge the Commission to have a close look at this strange decision.

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-making, in order to make sure that our legislation is of the highest quality and it delivers on the promises made to our voters. For me, this means increasing citizens’ participation in all the steps of EU law—making and decision—taking – because if we want to legislate for our citizens, their opinions should be heard. It also means increasing the transparency of the legislative process so that every citizen can follow the development of an initiative from inception until adoption. In particular, the Council should be a lot more open with their decision—making. We know that often the only information available from the Council is the final decision, without the possibility for the citizens to see how their own government influenced the decision. Last but not least, we need also to increase our efforts in enforcing EU law – because all the work we do in preparing the legislation would be in vain if we do not ensure it’s actually implemented and followed. All of these points have been included in the report and now we have to implement them.

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 who are not allowed any more to enter into the universities of my home country, Estonia. Probably this is our way of promoting European values! ‘Collateral damage’ to teachers in the remaining Russian schools of Estonia and Latvia. We went so far that in the heat of the discussion about the closure of Russian education, the biggest Estonian newspaper called them a ‘purulent tumour’. And guess what – nothing happened! The aggression against Ukraine kind of legitimises aggression against Russian—speaking Europeans. But colleagues, language is just language. It is a set of cases and morphemes, grammatical structure, a means of communication. I would like to urge the Commission not to turn a blind eye to the increasing discrimination against Russian speakers in Europe. This blindness will cost us a lot.

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 are aiming to give stateless people and long-term residents the same rights as EU citizens. Let me underline on the European level, not intervening into citizenship policy of Member States. This para says, for instance, that stateless people in the EU are not protected from discrimination under EU acquis and are not covered by the visa code. The authors of the letters are not concerned by that. Their concern is Putin, to whom, in their view, adoption of the report will give a platform to attack Estonia and Latvia. Firstly, this is a problem not only in my home country and neighbouring Latvia, this is also a problem, for instance, of Roma people in many different Member States. Secondly, I believe that bringing Putin into this discussion is absolutely unacceptable and shows very poor understanding of the problem. We are speaking about Europeans, we are speaking about people who are living in Europe for decades, we are speaking about taxpayers. The number of petitions received by our committee on this issue, number of signatures collected in different Member States to support minorities clearly shows that these people rely on Europe. They do not rely on Putin. They rely on us. So please let us show that the words we are so often using in this House, ‘nobody is left behind’, actually are true.

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 many of us have had an experience of the exact opposite when travel restrictions were imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. These restrictions have had a significant negative impact on the lives of Europeans. In this House, we said before that any disruptions to the ease of internal movement should be proportionate to the risk caused by the pandemic and should be lifted as soon as it is deemed no longer necessary. As the epidemiological situation takes a turn for the better in the majority of Member States, we must watch the situation carefully and take steps towards removing any restrictions that interfere with the freedom of movement. Having freedom of movement does not only mean that you are able to pass from one country to another without being checked on the border. The full enjoyment of this right means that any European can move to another Member State and start enjoying life in the new country. This means that there should not be discrimination based on nationality, that living in another country should not affect access to national services, that people should have a right to influence the decisions that affect them. It means that they should not be overburdened by arbitrary or even discriminatory administrative procedures. It means that they should not be subject to double taxation. We must not forget that mobile Europeans face many different situations when living in another Member State. Same-sex marriages are not recognised in every Member State. Cross-border couples with children that go through a separation might be faced with court proceedings that are harder and more complex than those for regular couples. Cross-border and seasonal workforce is at the core of the European economic activity, but they aren’t always treated in the best way. We have situations in some countries where mobile Europeans are not able to get national sickness insurance or a social security number, and this leaves them without access to a majority of that country’s administrative services. All of these are areas we need to work on. The Commission will soon release an updated version of the guidelines on the implementation of the Freedom of Movement Directive, and this is the perfect opportunity to address such challenges, and we call on the Commission to investigate these practices and to address them in the guidelines. There are challenges as well with mobile citizens’ electoral rights. Some Europeans that choose to move to another country are unfortunately left without the right of participation in elections. Their native Member State does not allow them to vote in elections as they have left the country and their host Member State does not allow them to vote in general elections as they are not nationals. And on top of that, they’re being hindered in the voting in local elections by a combination of burdensome procedures. We simply cannot stand for this because our Union is based on democratic values that cherish universal suffrage. We have to ease the access to elections so that mobile Europeans should be able to vote or stand for local and European elections just as easily as locals, and we have to explore and expand the possibilities of remote voting. We should also improve the participatory framework that allows Europeans to have a say in European law-making. In our committee we sometimes receive petitions which are better suited for the Ombudsman or Citizens’ Initiative. This makes me think that Europeans might be confused about the participatory tool that they should be using. This could easily be solved by creating a single platform with access to all three, and better guidance on the appropriate tool. Lastly, the European citizenship rights we are so proud of cannot make a difference if Europeans are not aware of them. That is why we must do more to inform people about their rights and we must promote political education on EU affairs.

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 year we receive almost 2 000 petitions. However, only a few hundred of them are declared admissible, and only a few end up with an infringement procedure, despite the fact that Europeans are quite well aware of their rights. For instance, they refer quite often to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and to the European Pillar of Social Rights. What they are not aware of are the limits that are imposed on us by the Treaties. As Tatjana Ždanoka has already mentioned, Article 51, for instance, states that the European Charter of Fundamental Rights is mandatory to follow only if Member States apply European, not national law. This is a problem, and the idea behind the Committee on Petitions is pretty much the same as that behind the Conference the Future of Europe. Our committee is looking forward to efficient and clear results from the Conference on the Future of Europe. This is absolutely a clear signal from European citizens. We need better cooperation with the Commission. We need the involvement of NGOs and we need to use the Citizens’ Initiative tool in the proper way. It’s absolutely unacceptable when the European Commission just sends the European Citizens’ Initiative to the bin. In other words, we need more Europe.

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 girls. Technology is evolving fast and the speed of innovation in the online and digital world is incredible. While this speed of innovation brings us amazing new tools that make our life better, it is also providing new tools that facilitate abuse. For example, right now there are stalkerware applications legally available for purchase and use in digital stores. These applications are marketed as parental control software and are intended to monitor the activity on a phone or other device. The problem is that some of them don’t require the monitored person’s consent and they don’t have any kind of warning or signal that they’re operating. So, if an aggressor has access to a victim’s device for two minutes to install the application, they will have unlimited and undisturbed access to every move of the victim. I think we need to regulate the use of these types of applications and I worked to include it in the report. But this is only one example of harmful applications and there are many more applications out there. In the end, it will always be a difficult task to keep up with new technologies, but that should not stop us from taking steps in addressing the ways that technology can facilitate violence. This will require legislative action, like the prosecution and criminalisation of gender—based cyber violence, and non—legislative actions like protection and support of the victims; improving the process of reporting the crimes; raising awareness of the scale and consequences of the violence; focus on gender equality in education for the younger generation, removing gender stereotypes in the media, and improving research of the topic. Once again, we call for an EU directive that will include all of these points and we are expecting a proposal to arrive in early 2022. I am looking forward for that proposal and I will work to make sure that the directive is in line with the high ambitions we set today.