What Brando spoke about.

13 Sep

2023

IT Speech

State of the Union (debate)

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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 enou…

12 Sep

2023

IT Speech

EU-Tunisia Agreement - aspects related to external migration policy (debate)

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(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 Afr…

11 Sep

2023

EN Answer

Amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure with a view to strengthening integrity, independence and accountability (debate)

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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 consi…

11 Sep

2023

IT Speech

Amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure with a view to strengthening integrity, independence and accountability (debate)

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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 plan…

13 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Global Convergence on Generative AI (debate)

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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 in…

12 Jul

2023

IT Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 29-30 June 2023, in particular the recent developments in the war against Ukraine and in Russia (debate)

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(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 …

11 Jul

2023

IT Speech

Nature restoration (debate)

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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 …

15 Jun

2023

IT Speech

The water crisis in Europe (debate)

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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, …

14 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Artificial Intelligence Act (A9-0188/2023 - Brando Benifei, Dragoş Tudorache) (vote)

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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 parti…

13 Jun

2023

IT Speech

Quality traineeships in the EU (debate)

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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.…

13 Jun

2023

IT Speech

Establishment of the EU Ethics Body (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we have been waiting for some years for a concrete proposal for the establishment of an independent ethics body, with a control mandate for the institutions and agencies of the European Union. However, the Commission's text does not go in the desired direction. It's more of an empty box than anything else. The designated body, in fact, unlike the very specifi…

13 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

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Madam President, I thank the Vice-President and all the colleagues for the debate. Thanks to my co-rapporteur Dragoș Tudorache and all the shadow rapporteurs for this great work, and also their contribution to this discussion that has been showing also the different angles to which we can look at the topic. I think it emerged very clearly that we need to work very strongly on some innovations that…

13 Jun

2023

IT Speech

Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

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(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the whole world is watching us as alarms follow one another about artificial intelligence in general, the risk of extinction of the human race by sentient algorithms, alarms often launched by the same Big Tech that fear what they have created. In the meantime, Europe has moved forward, without stopping, and in recent months has worked hard to propose a conc…

31 May

2023

IT Speech

Social and economic costs of climate change in light of the floods in Emilia Romagna, Marche and Toscana and the urgent need for European solidarity (debate)

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Madam President, many people have lost their lives, more than 30 000 have had to leave their homes, the rain that falls in seven months has fallen in a couple of weeks, causing rivers to overflow, hundreds of landslides, flooding 43 municipalities and, think, over 100 000 tonnes of waste to be disposed of. These are the dramatic figures of the floods that hit Emilia-Romagna two weeks ago, but with…

10 May

2023

IT Speech

Media freedom and freedom of expression in Algeria, the case of journalist Ihsane El-Kadi

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 137 days have passed since the journalist Ihsane El Kadi was arrested solely for publishing articles critical of the Algerian authorities, his media outlets have been shut down and he will have to serve another five years. The violation of freedom of the press and the non-respect of fundamental freedoms and the rule of law have been on the agenda in Algeria for …

10 May

2023

IT Speech

Update of the anti-corruption legislative framework (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the package presented by the European Commission is a good starting point for updating, strengthening and harmonising the European legislative framework for the fight against corruption. In particular, I stress the importance of the proposal for a directive on combating corruption and, as Parliament, we should improve it to strengthen the capacity to put in plac…

20 Apr

2023

IT Speech

Composition of committees and delegations

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Madam President, I would like to make a point of order only to draw attention to the very serious situation in Sudan, which is getting worse. We have volunteers, we have organizations on the ground, also from our European countries, I think also from Italy. Organizations such as Music for Peace and AICS that are present on the territory and that are there to help need the attention of Europe to st…

19 Apr

2023

IT Speech

This is Europe - Debate with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel (debate)

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Madam President, Mr Bettel, welcome back to the European Parliament. Your country, Luxembourg, has been central to the construction of European integration together with many other countries. Today we are a great Union, but we need more courage, from your country and from so many others, from so many governments, from the Council. On 8 and 9 May, for Europe Day, hundreds, thousands of citizens and…

18 Apr

2023

EN Speech

The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)

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The state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Meloni is just another way to hide the difficulties of the government: as they are unable to provide sustainable solutions, they declare a state of emergency and they try to distract the public opinion – and also the European opinion – from the difficulties of the government to achieve the real results we need from them. So to spend the amount of r…

18 Apr

2023

IT Speech

The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)

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Mr President, yesterday the President of the EPP, Mr Weber, said that we must be ready to build fences and walls with the European budget, promoting a phantom fake solidarity with Italy. Disconcerting and unacceptable words. It seems that Erdoğan, Orbán are the models of the Italian and European right. It's outrageous. The President of the Italian Republic Mattarella is right, we need to go beyond…

29 Mar

2023

IT Speech

The Rights of children in Rainbow Families and same sex parents in particular in Italy (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I have been called into question by Mr Mussolini, saying that I do not know and have not read the government's acts. But I have read the deeply discriminatory and violent statements against the rainbow families and their children of the Italian right, a right out of what is the canon of a European conservative force of Western European countries and looking rath…

29 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, dear colleagues, the S&D also proposed a title along the same lines of the Greens who have just presented it. Our priority is that a debate on the ongoing situation actually takes place, so we are happy to converge on the Greens’ proposal for the title and to support this debate. And thanks also from our side to the Mayor of Milan here, Giuseppe Sala, and all the mayors that in It…

16 Mar

2023

IT Speech

Resumption of the sitting

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Mr President, I just wanted to say to Mr Mussolini that every government is responsible for public order in its own country. So, if the Italian government has failed to stop violent supporters, it is the fault of the Italian government, which will obviously have to answer to Parliament and the citizens.…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Need for immediate reform of the internal rules of the Commission to ensure transparency and accountability in light of alleged conflicts of interests (debate)

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I will clarify better what I wanted to say, there are different issues. On one hand, we need to forbid what should not be happening already. At the same time, we also have a general interest – and the Parliament expressed itself already many times – to have an ethics body that is able to confront with these issues. We have different opinions in this room, but let’s not mix different things. It’s a…

15 Mar

2023

IT Speech

Need for immediate reform of the internal rules of the Commission to ensure transparency and accountability in light of alleged conflicts of interests (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, all the European institutions must act responsibly internally in order to have a structure that is as transparent and credible as possible. Compared with the inquiry launched by the European Ombudsman into flights paid to Commission officials, it is certainly necessary to investigate thoroughly, so that there is no doubt whatsoever about undue pressure or illega…