Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we are taking a huge step forward for gender equality, for women's rights. This is a significant moment, important of course for us, but it is important above all, I believe, for future generations. And we are taking this very important step forward - let me tell you - thanks to the tenacity of this Parliament, thanks to the tenacity of the Commissioner, thanks to the colleagues who have worked tirelessly on this directive - I look at Evelyn - because for ten years some governments have absolutely held us hostage, they have been shortsighted in the face of progress, in the face of truth, justice, they have blocked rules of common sense that they had and that have the ambition simply to correct a distortion of reality that is the result of stereotypes and an unacceptable patriarchal culture. So let us take a partial step forward, Madam President, and I will close, in an area that is, however, crucial for the future of all women.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I too have a point of order. On November 21, nine years ago, young Ukrainians took to the streets wrapped in European flags to protest against the failure to sign an association agreement with the European Union, which was not signed at the time by the pro-Russian President Yanukovych. Thus, President, Euromaidan was born, a movement that for three months in the central square of Kiev was clamoring for a European future, asking to be able to choose its own path within the European Union and demanding that Ukraine be a democracy and not a country subjected to an autocrat. This desire for freedom was curbed in 2014 by the occupation of Crimea and then by the beginning of the war in Donbass, but even today this desire for freedom is firm in front of the bombs, in front of the deaths that Russia has been inflicting on the Ukrainian population for nine months now. And then I would like the thought of this House today to be directed to the memory of those young people who paid with their lives, because many were killed. Their adherence to the dream is the European perspective. And I would like us to remember how many people resist Putin's criminal war every day. Kiev's place is within our community and we must reiterate it strongly every day.

I would like to thank the rapporteur and the colleagues who have taken part in this very interesting debate. The debate is closed. The vote will take place today. The sitting is suspended for a few minutes and I will resume shortly with the votes. Written declarations (Rule 171)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, women continue to die, they continue to be subjected to violence, it happens in the world, it happens in Europe, in our Europe, and I continue to say that this, if you think about it, is the only dramatic fact that really unites us. We do not share rights, there are different rights depending on the country in which we are born, we do not share freedoms, there are different freedoms depending on the country in which we are born, the only thing that unites us for the fact of being women, I would say for the fault of being born women, is the fact of being continuously subjected to violence. And this concerns all women, in any social condition, in any economic condition, in any religion they believe. And this terrible fact constitutes an unbearable limit to our dignity, our freedom and, ultimately, dear colleagues, to our lives. And then, of course, we need to take legislative action, we need to continue on the path marked by the Istanbul Convention, but I would remind this House once again, and also my colleagues who make rather original interventions, that the Convention is not a point of arrival, but only a point of departure. These are the minimum standards that should then be deepened and strengthened in the Member States. I am therefore thinking of the directive against violence on which we are working, on which we are intervening at parliamentary level to provide uniform minimum protection for all women present in the territory of the Union, but let me say, ladies and gentlemen, that in addition to a regulatory level, before that I would like to say the regulatory level, on the cultural, social and institutional level on which we continue to record an unbearable deficiency. Then, only when we have created a culture that is full of gender equality can the rules be fully enforced. In short, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, dear colleagues, there is still much work to be done, too much, this House will continue to do so, for the women of today and for the women to come.

Madam President, Mr Vice-President, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, the courageous resistance of the Ukrainian people, their legitimate government, our aid to Kiev, combined with the pressure of sanctions are bending the Kremlin, its economy, its violent military force. And reality, more clearly than Putin's propaganda, shows once again that this is the path we must take, and European leaders must act more decisively in the name of our collective security, our values, our unity. I naturally welcome the proposal for the price cap and joint purchasing of gas, key objectives to alleviate the burden of the energy crisis on households and businesses. We could certainly aspire to more courageous measures, but some national egoisms have forced us to accept the minimum rather than demanding the maximum. I therefore call on the European governments to establish as soon as possible criteria for the functioning of the price cap in the name of full European solidarity. Finally, Vice-President, I would like to thank Mario Draghi and his government from here because without his experience Europe would have been much, much more fragile in recent months.

The next item is the Commission statement on the rule of law in Malta, five years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia (2022/2866(RSP)).

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we can no longer underestimate the effects of Putin's propaganda, because it is a weapon, a real weapon that is aimed at weakening our unity, our resilience, undermining our values, undermining what is our collective security. Already during the pandemic we saw how Russia exploited the health crisis to spread chaos and disinformation and the aggression in Ukraine then definitively made the whole world feel the weight of propaganda in the context of hybrid warfare. A weapon used to divide us, through which the Kremlin seeks to manipulate the atrocities committed, deny the principles on which our international community is founded and exploit, for example, the energy crisis. Turning to the other side is not an option. This Parliament, which has repeatedly stressed the need for action, will not do so. It has done this through the valuable work of colleagues that has been done in the INGE Committee, but we need to do more. We need to develop a common strategy that is fit for today's challenges. We need to start an information programme, to carry out more effective monitoring, for example of the content that is disseminated online.

Thank you to Mr Saliba. I too would like to join the congratulations to the rapporteur, to those who have worked, to the colleagues who have spoken in this beautiful debate. Let me say that it is really nice to see this Parliament so concretely committed to resolving issues that affect the lives of citizens. The debate is closed. The vote will take place on Tuesday, 4 October 2022. Written declarations (Rule 171)

The next item is the report by Alex Agius Saliba, on behalf of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2014/53/EU on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment (COM(2021)0547 - C9-0366/2021 - 2021/0291(COD)) (A9-0129/2022).

Pursuant to Rule 158(2) of the Rules of Procedure, on a proposal from the President in agreement with the political groups, today's sitting will be extended until 11 p.m. If there are no objections, the amendment shall be approved.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank the rapporteur and the shadow rapporteurs very much for the difficult, not simple, work they have done in recent months during the negotiations. We are at a crucial moment in history, as we have said many times in this House: The European Union must show great leadership, large capacity of leadership on the inside and also on the outside. And we have found ourselves here debating, in this House, in the committees, the reform of the directives on renewable energy at the probably most complex moment of the energy crisis, caused precisely by the illegal and brutal invasion of Russia in Ukraine. The work we have tried to do in the AGRI Committee is to have a pragmatic and reasoned approach to the need to diversify, of course, our energy sources but, at the same time, to ensure food security and a healthy management of our lands. So I want to thank the rapporteur very much, once again, for finding the right compromise between the increasingly urgent need to increase the share of renewable energy in order to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, the provenance of which we know well, without putting our agriculture and forestry at risk.

The next item is the report by Dennis Radtke and Agnes Jongerius, on behalf of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on adequate minimum wages in the European Union (COM(2020)0682 - C9-0337/2020 - 2020/0310(COD)) (A9-0325/2021).

Of course, the Presidency shares your concerns and your speech, and of course I will pass your speech on to President Metsola. As always, this Parliament will react with great authority and with great readiness.

We resume the debate, which was interrupted because of a technical problem, on the report by Tiemo Wölken, on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs, on Better Regulation: Joining forces to produce better laws (A9-0167/2022) (2021/2166(INI)).