Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago some people tried to bribe this Parliament by using the issue of human rights for personal gain, tarnishing the honour of the European institutions. The exact responsibilities will be ascertained but it is undoubtedly necessary to make our European democratic house more transparent and resistant to external influences, with best practices also in the internal functioning of our decisions. The work done in recent months is good; We have reformed our internal rules on conflicts of interest and transparency and are working towards the establishment of an independent oversight body. But it's not enough! For example, we have not done enough on the subject of revolving doors: Those who undertake a private activity after being a Member of Parliament should no longer deal with the same issues that they dealt with when working for the institutions. A six-month break has been provided for; It is too little, it should be raised to five years. The integrity of the institutions cannot be achieved by sanctions alone, we need an ethical effort and an effort for transparency, because that is the only way we can restore credibility to our European parliamentary institutions.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 'there will come a time when people will want to hang Sánchez by the feet': These are the very serious words of Santiago Abascal, leader of the Spanish far right. An incitement to hatred and violence for which I express my solidarity with President Pedro Sánchez, present here today, and with all of democratic and anti-fascist Spain. Despite all this, Giorgia Meloni invited Abascal for the party of her party: This is a choice that outrages us and that is against the history of our country, Italy, which, like Spain, has experienced the shame of the dictatorship of the extreme right. Spain is an ally instead of those who want a stronger Europe in the world, with fiscal rules geared to growth, a force for peace and international law in the face of the conflicts around us. The upcoming Spanish Presidency has achieved important results: in my case, I cannot fail to mention the agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Regulation, of which I have been and am the co-rapporteur. A great result for citizens, workers and businesses. ¡Adelante President!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, blood, terror and chaos continue to be the real protagonists. We need an immediate ceasefire! More than 18,000 victims in Gaza, 137 people still held hostage by Hamas, hospitals collapsing everywhere. 85% of Gaza's population, 1.9 million people, are displaced and the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, is a huge refugee camp. Uncertainty reigns, there is no clear commitment to a way out. The US veto at the UN Security Council was a mistake: Today we need sanctions against Hamas, but also against Israeli settlers responsible for violence against the Palestinian population. High Representative Borrell, we cannot leave Gaza to Hamas and we cannot leave its inhabitants without land. As you said, it is time to move from words to deeds. Europe is playing an important role, but it must play an even greater role in bringing the two-people solution for two states back to the centre with a credible plan.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, these are decisive hours: The ongoing negotiations seem to lead to a possible truce, to a release of the hostages. We hope it can happen as soon as possible. This slight optimism, however, immediately leaves room for the observation of a dramatic situation on the ground: More than a month after the criminal Hamas attack, deaths continue to rise in Gaza. Lack of basic necessities: water, food, medicine, fuel. This dramatic scenario was seen by you, High Representative, and you have, I believe, correctly charted the way forward: yes to an immediate cessation of hostilities to ensure the passage of humanitarian aid to Gaza; No to its re-occupation by Israel and no to the forced expulsion of Palestinians. I want to repeat it as I have already said in this House: Israel has the right to defend itself but not to revenge, and civilians must be protected. Europe is proving in practice that it can, if it wishes, speak with its own voice and play an important diplomatic role. Let's keep doing it. Let's really do it. There is no more time: Let's stop this war.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the challenges facing the European Union are at a crossroads: To take a step forward in the integration process or, as Mario Draghi also recently said, to remain nothing more than a common market, to lose centrality, to lose one's role in the world. The proposal we are going to vote on is the first step in getting Council leaders to address the discussion on launching a convention to reform the treaties. Today, more than ever, reforms are needed to strengthen the role of the European Parliament and to overcome the veto mechanism in the Council. We want citizens to have the opportunity to express themselves directly, as is the case with any democracy, and to expand the Union's competences in key areas such as environmental protection, health, labour policies and social policies: A protocol for social progress is essential. Those who want a stronger and more united Europe are sometimes considered utopian. I think it is in the negative that those who want us to believe that the European states can still count individually ununited. We finally have some courage. I also say this to our rulers: Have courage and give Europe the strength it needs.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today is World Children's Day. It pains me to point out that the situation for children is still dramatic when we look at child poverty in Europe and Italy. I'm leaving from my own country: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has received the European Union's Child Guarantee and an excellent national plan for its implementation. But since his inauguration everything has stopped: it is not known what happened to the Working Group on Child Guarantee; social spending is cut with a disastrous budget law and the NRRP on children and nests is on the high seas. I point out that in 2022, 13.4 % of children were in absolute poverty, I stress absolute poverty; full-time guaranteed only to 38.1% of primary school students and NEETs over 23%: This is the highest figure in the European Union. Data that angers and shows that we can't waste time. Instead, we are wasting resources and opportunities. It's a shame. This is not only true for Italy: Child poverty is growing in Europe, with millions of children at risk. We cannot allow years of battles against child poverty to be thwarted. For example, tomorrow we can go one step further together and ask for funding of at least EUR 20 billion for the Child Guarantee to further support these programmes, hoping that they will be carried out on time and in the right way, also to meet the needs of refugee children – I am thinking of the issue of Ukrainian children and children from other countries. Otherwise, if we don't make a move, we will condemn millions of children to an unworthy future.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 'we are in grave danger of Benjamin Netanyahu and his fanatical allies taking advantage of the Gaza crisis to drive the Palestinians out of all the occupied territories. We risk a regional war for these messianic criminals. These are the words not of a pro-Palestinian activist, but of Ehud Olmert, former premier of the Likud nationalist right, in an interview with an Italian newspaper. Israel's self-defense against Hamas's hateful terrorist attack cannot ignore the protection of civilians in Gaza and respect for international law. No collective punishment of a people is acceptable. A cessation of hostilities is now needed to allow humanitarian aid to arrive. We need the release of hostages, a de-escalation and a stop to the flow of money to terrorist organizations, together with a real process that leads to the creation, finally, of two states, stopping the progress of the settlements in the West Bank and with an international presence in Gaza. This is the only way to ensure justice and security for Israelis and Palestinians. Europe finally speaks with one voice to make sense of the international order and save lives.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we react with dismay to the deaths following the terrorist acts in France and Belgium. Once again, European citizens are being affected. In the face of all this, however, we must not resign ourselves. Something must and can be done, something other than shameful and generalizing speculation on the skin of migrants and refugees, the result of a purely racist vision, often promoted by the right. The phenomenon of radicalism often has its origins in an absence of education and integration in European countries. Too many young people today live ghettoized and resigned in the banlieues of our metropolises. We therefore need real integration, but we also need to invest in security, so that what happened does not happen again. The Brussels bomber had already been attacked for criminal acts: It wasn't supposed to be where he was. We must be sure that security is guaranteed for our citizens, precisely to prevent radical visions of exclusion, of contrasting people, who are then racist ideas, from replacing our coexistence. Effective policies are needed to do this.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, every year around 12 billion working days are lost due to depression or anxiety, at a cost to the world economy of almost USD 1 trillion. These are data that concern the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, which have developed guidelines and information on mental health in the workplace and are calling again for concrete actions to address mental health problems in the working population. According to many estimates, the pandemic has increased anxiety and depression globally, but national governments' budget spending on mental health protection is still not sufficient. Unfortunately, forms of social stigma still prevail, of concern to explain these types of problems. Instead, we need to make sure that with new technologies there are more and more possibilities to help people, even with new forms of therapy. Instead, we must prevent stress or even new forms of work from creating new barriers and new mental problems. For example, the right to disconnect is extremely important. The protection of mental health is a human right.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we have also seen this clearly in these days of conflict: Disinformation can have devastating effects and further fuel hatred and tension, if not governed and countered. Europe is at the forefront with the Digital Services Act, introducing platform accountability measures, which are necessary to protect European citizens and to create a healthy online environment. These measures become even more necessary in historical periods such as these, from conflicts to the pandemic, to the economic and climate crises. Spread fake news that can reach millions of users just to have clicks and profits and personal gains, even in a political sense, is irresponsible and dangerous, but highly probable, feasible and not so difficult, unfortunately. It was therefore important to see the new rules in operation, including with the action taken by Commissioner Breton against, for example, X. I think we will have to continue in this direction, also thinking about important moments such as the European elections next June. That is why we want to go further, beyond the code of conduct on disinformation, the DSA and other instruments. For example, we want to introduce in the Artificial Intelligence Regulation the obligation to clearly label when content is generated by artificial intelligence, precisely to prevent it from being used to distort democratic processes. On this will also be important the compliance voluntary advance on which we are working. Peace, democracy and fundamental rights must be the basis of governance also in the virtual and digital world.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the tragic events of recent weeks have given us new crises with unpredictable and global implications, from migration flows to wars and security issues. Everyone is calling for a Europe that is truly an effective geopolitical actor, but to achieve all this we need to take a step forward in European political unity. I want to use this moment and this debate of ours to reiterate it: we will not resolve our weakness with fragile political agreements or crisis-driven choices; We will solve it if we are able to build Europe's political unity, overcoming vetoes and giving a real federal structure to the European Commission, to institutions like this Parliament and to the Council, which must become a true Senate of States, able to decide as quickly as necessary in the face of a rapidly changing world. It is not enough to be the first to decide on rules – I am thinking of digital issues – we must be the first to build a global capacity for action.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, we have condemned the massacre perpetrated by Hamas criminals and we support Israel's sacrosanct right to defend itself and neutralise the offensive capacity of terrorists, as well as calling for the immediate release of all hostages. On the other hand, we cannot accept the affirmation of the right to revenge. In Gaza we are facing a real humanitarian catastrophe that we cannot remain silent about, and a total siege without water or electricity would be a grave violation of international humanitarian law. It would also be a favor to Hamas and its puppeteers, starting with Iran, who want to fuel a spiral of endless violence and destruction. Instead, the international community must make immediate efforts to isolate terrorists and their supporters, to combat the return of hateful forms of anti-Semitism and a rapid end to the bombing, as well as to support the resumption of diplomatic activity, which will restore hope for peace to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, after years of fear, violence and illegal occupation. Europe is finally doing its part for peace.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday in this House we commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Lampedusa tragedy: 368 men, women and children who lost their lives in an attempt to seek a better life. It is angering to think that an agreement on the migration and asylum package is still blocked because some believe that the presence of NGO ships is an incentive for immigration, while the data tell us that this is not the case. Nevertheless, members of the Brothers of Italy in this House said shameful things on these issues yesterday. After the shipwreck, that terrible shipwreck that we remember, there was Mare Nostrum, a search and rescue mission, which must now be restored as a European mission. Instead, after the tragedy of Cutro, the Italian government criminalized those who save lives at sea and established a "lace" to get out of the CPR, this yes, a "state lace". It takes time, they say. There is no more time, after ten years and 28,000 people dead and missing, we must act now.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we strongly condemn Azerbaijan's military aggression against the Armenian-majority region of Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 100,000 refugees have already arrived in Armenia from a region that was inhabited by more than 120,000 people. Any forcible transfer of persons and any possible action against them on ethnic grounds is and will be considered a crime against humanity. The fragile political framework is also of concern. The self-proclaimed republic that has ruled Nagorno-Karabakh for over thirty years has already announced that it will dissolve its institutions from next January. The risk is that this gap will be filled by external actors such as Russia and Turkey. The UN decision to send a mission for the first time is good news, but it is not enough. The European Union must not remain a detached actor, but must act by activating all its diplomatic instruments to bring dialogue back, to bring the protagonists of this affair together in a dialogue and always guarantee the protection of the local population.

Madam President, thank you for your words of remembrance of President Napolitano. I wanted to add something on our part, as a delegation of the Democratic Party. President Giorgio Napolitano was a statesman and of the Italian and European institutions. Parliamentarian first of all, but also a man of government and, as you mentioned, the first President of the Republic to be elected for a second time. He chose, as President, as his first visit in 2006, the island of Ventotene for the federalist seminar founded by Altiero Spinelli. He has been honored these days by leaders and personalities from all over the world, not only in the field of politics. He was a great meridionalist, as well as an intellectual, a lover of art and music. He went through the history of the twentieth century and of the Italian left, as his autobiography "From the PCI to European Socialism" headlines. He was not afraid to question dogmas and certainties. In this European Parliament he was an esteemed and determined colleague – you mentioned him as chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs – and then he was also chairman of the European Movement in Italy. I want to remember him, finally, again with these words: Today for Europe it is necessary that those who believe in its values and feel the imperative of its unity know how to dare and take risks, not forgetting that, especially to overcome misunderstandings, historical conditioning, contagious fears and resistance to the new, politics must become passionate. Words full of meaning at a decisive moment in our history, a moral testament to which to turn gratitude and from which to draw.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, President von der Leyen, Europe will only respond to the call of history if it is able to free itself from the blackmail of nationalisms that veto the future of the new generations. The pandemic, the war on our doorstep and climate change have forced Europe to respond united with extraordinary measures to get out of emergencies. But reacting is no longer enough: We need a Europe that anticipates and governs change. We make permanent the NextGenerationEU and we provide the union with a real federal budget. We reform economic governance to promote just and sustainable growth. We act with courage to put extraordinary technologies such as artificial intelligence at the service of human beings. Let us not be intimidated, on the contrary, Mr von der Leyen, let us not be intimidated by those political forces, some close to you, which are trying to undermine the European standards necessary to save the planet. At the next elections there will be, on the one hand, those who will be able to give answers to the call of History and, on the other, those who will provide justifications and scapegoats. Europeans already know who to trust: The Europeans are ready.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 'Hoards of illegal migrants call for urgent measures against a criminal enterprise set up at the beginning of this century to change Tunisia's demographic composition': These were the words of the Tunisian President, Kais Saied, a few months ago, a terrible language, terrible, towards those fleeing wars and climate change in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. It is in this situation, in a country where opponents are in prison and where authoritarianism is advancing, that a memorandum of political understanding was signed in July between this Tunisian government and the European Union. This agreement worries about the form, because the Libyan experience should have taught us how bilateral agreements of this kind are dramatically unsuccessful, and it worries about the substance, because it is yet another useless attempt to externalize the control of European borders with great risks to human rights. My party, the Democratic Party, will be in Tunisia these days to understand if the road can be another. Europe must finally make its own migration policy, based on legal flows, solidarity and agreements that respect our values. You can do this if you have the political will, otherwise we will still be blackmailed by dictators or would-be dictators.

I think it’s very delicate when we put a limit on the activity of a parliamentarian. So we need to consider these issues with care and with attention. However, I think that the rules we are putting in this text are simply increasing transparency and an overall control on our democratic procedures, a form of collective scrutiny. So, I think we should never underestimate this issue. We need to consider the freedom of the mandate, the freedom to have any idea that is compatible with democratic values in this Chamber, to be protected, but at the same time, we need to protect democracy from the risk of corruption and external influence.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, with the reform of the rules of procedure, we show that we want to strengthen the integrity, independence and transparency of our institution after the scandals that have shown the permeability of the system. These are clear and ambitious rules, such as the obligation for Members to submit an additional asset declaration and the obligation to publish all planned meetings with stakeholders, which previously only applied to specific office holders or those with an active role in a dossier. A new composition of the Advisory Committee, which will include three independent experts, is then introduced and this body is given the opportunity to directly report alleged infringements. There is not all that is necessary, we need to work on it again, take further steps, but this is an extremely important first step. These are necessary rules and it is inexplicable that a part of the right in this Parliament wants to oppose these new rules. One thing is certain: the final vote in plenary will reveal who really wants to reform our institution, protecting it from external influences, and who wants to maintain the status quo, perhaps after having filled their mouths in recent months with useless propaganda on these issues. (The speaker agreed to answer a "blue card" question)

Mr President, Commissioner, we are happy to have you today for this very timely debate that was proposed together with some other colleagues. Generative AI is the hot topic of the moment, and for the last few months we have all witnessed the amazing things it can do, to the point that human creations are now often totally indistinguishable from AI ones. This opens up countless opportunities for innovation, but also raises a lot of concerns on privacy, IP rights, disinformation, environment, jobs, etc. This is why Parliament has put forward an ambitious proposal, a light but targeted legislative intervention in the AI Act regarding the generative AI. That was approved – the old text of the AI Act – just one month ago, and we are happy now to see signs of openness by the Commission and also by some Member States to consider these ideas, in particular our call for these systems to label their content so as to indicate that these are generated by an AI. We have also dealt with the specific issue of deepfakes, of the production of illegal content and of the copyright protection. Back when the first letter on the request for a moratorium on these systems was published, we replied by making concrete proposals for global initiatives, as we are convinced that stopping the development of these technologies is not realistic. Instead, it needs to be governed. This is why we welcome the initiatives taken by several Commissioners to take immediate action at the international level. But let me be very clear: voluntary pacts or codes of conduct must not be a way to undermine the legislative process that is going on in parallel and which we hope to finalise in the upcoming months with a great sense of urgency, as this Parliament has been at the forefront of AI regulation and governance since our very first resolution in 2016, and we are now instrumental on the first ever regulation on AI. This is one of the many reasons why we need to reiterate our long—standing call for a parliamentary dimension to the Trade and Technology Council. Global cooperation on AI, in particular with trusted partners, is crucial, but it cannot happen behind closed doors, as it has been the case so far. We know our American colleagues in Congress share the same view. We talk with them. So we strongly call on you to finally deliver on this without further ado.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Council has received another demonstration of unity in condemning and reacting in the strongest terms to Putin's aggression against Ukraine. Russia's destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, a veritable act of state eco-terrorism, has caused incalculable damage from a humanitarian and environmental point of view, and is a threat to the security of the entire continent, given its proximity to a nuclear power plant. Europe must therefore continue without hesitation to support the Ukrainian resistance, but we cannot remain silent about the decision of the United States to supply cluster bombs, weapons prohibited by the Oslo Convention, signed by all the countries of the European Union. A wrong choice on which we cannot be conditioned by Putin and on which the European Union must make itself felt more strongly, maintaining its commitment to the European Union. de-escalation and for a just peace for the Ukrainian people, who have been fighting for their freedom and survival for more than 500 days now.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we in the Italian Democratic Party, we Socialists and Democrats, will support the law on nature restoration, a fundamental choice for healing our planet, restoring degraded terrestrial and marine habitats, protecting rivers and forests. We fight every day to obtain adequate resources for an effective ecological transition that protects people and work, while the right has launched an ideological crusade against the environment, against science, against the future of the new generations while in Italy it is wasting the funds of the NRRP. Colleagues, listen to the young Europeans, Greta Thunberg who is here today, and all of them should be thanked because they were able to wake up politics a few years ago. We don't steal their future, they ask us for responsibility. We show that we know how to exercise it and therefore deserve the role we play, finally making the right decisions.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the Po River is completely dry, rivers and streams have disappeared and there has been no rain for months. This spring, Italy looked exactly like that. Just a month ago, however, another completely different scenario: Emilia-Romagna underwater, flooded rivers, landslides, dead, displaced. This is not a paradox. Climate change is altering hydrological cycles, lengthening periods of drought alternating with frequent periods of heavy rain. That's not good, we have to act. Today we will vote on the resolution on the World Day for the Victims of Climate Change and in two days we will celebrate the World Day against Desertification and Drought. These issues are priorities of the Green Deal We must therefore continue to work on the strategy for adaptation to climate change, as well as on all the Commission's proposals. We must be effective, realistic, concrete, but also ambitious, because otherwise we will not have a future. Those are facts we're talking about, not opinions. We need an efficient economy, with greater water savings. There is no planet B, there is no alternative.

Madam President, dear colleagues, myself and Dragoş are very proud to present you this compromise text. It will be an historical vote where we not only address the most pressing issues with AI, but we also give a clear message to the rest of the world on how we think it should be done; how we can preserve our democracies and support innovation at the same time. I want to thank all of you who participated in this work. It’s been a collective effort. Let’s deliver together now. Let’s vote.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, tomorrow we are voting on a text that definitively enshrines our commitment to defending the rights of young people, after years of battles in which we have been at the forefront of many. The practice of unpaid internships must be banned throughout Europe, as we have done here in the European Parliament under the leadership of President Sassoli. This requires a European directive, and tomorrow's resolution details the essential elements of the legislative text that we must defend. The right, popular conservatives and the Identity and Democracy group are against it. They will explain it to the girls and boys who start their careers, who struggle to pay rents, are exploited at the most difficult time, when they try to responsibly undertake their own path of autonomous life. There is a clear choice of field: with young people or against them. Curriculum doesn't pay bills. Adequate remuneration is also needed for trainees and we will have to continue working in this direction and tomorrow we will make a big step forward.