Speeches

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, citizens are calling for a stronger Europe that charges taxes to large multinationals and speculative finance, that stops the climate catastrophe, that guarantees safety and protection from threats to health, but also from the new spectre of war. In all these areas, the challenges to be faced are increasingly declined on a transnational level. For this reason, in order to strengthen the link between territories and global dynamics, the possibility of voting directly for the candidate President of the European Commission, presented by each of the political parties within a transnational pan-European list of 28 parliamentarians, is essential. In this way, yes, we strengthen the European dimension of elections, together with the possibility for Member States to get 16-year-olds to vote, as well as strengthening gender equality. We must vote for this reform. In this way we can build together a stronger European democracy.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Alexei Navalny was sentenced to another nine years in prison because Putin considers him a threat, because he fears him, because, just as Navalny himself stated at the time of his conviction, Putin is afraid of the truth. The dramatic news coming from Ukraine makes us reflect on the ever-increasing repression experienced by the Russian people at home. As I wrote in a recent parliamentary question to the Commission, more and more Russians are leaving their country to flee a bloody regime capable of such heinous actions and must not be abandoned. Putin wants to erase all freedom. There is no room for dissent in Russia: You go to jail for political reasons, freedom of expression is a chimera and minorities are persecuted. But there are those who try to imagine a different Russia. Europe must help those Russians who flee and those who resist: They are students, professors, journalists, activists and many ordinary people, men and women who oppose the regime, who take to the streets, who want democracy. We give Navalny and all of them hope.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 'seeing what is right and not doing it is a lack of courage', said Confucius. Today XI Jinping's China cannot ignore this maxim of its greatest philosopher, to whom other colleagues have also referred. More than a month after Russia's dramatic invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has not yet clearly condemned Putin's actions, instead implementing a wait-and-see policy and an ambiguous equidistance. If we do not want to see a dialogue between the deaf, the Union must insist that China play an active role in stopping the conflict, because this conflict is not for anyone. Not only: Europe must be clear that there will be countermeasures if China ends up helping Putin in this massacre, including the last terrible acts we have seen. One thing is certain: In the face of respect for international law and fundamental freedoms, Europe must continue to show determination. It is the spirit that inspired the work of fellow MEPs still today under the Chinese government's sanctions. We therefore hope for real cooperation to stop the war: But it must be Beijing that demonstrates whether it wants to be on the side of peace and therefore against this unjust aggression.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, kidney disease-related mortality continues to increase every year; It is expected to be the fifth leading cause of death by 2040. In addition, the data speak of about 850 million people worldwide who suffer from kidney disease, among them about 13 million have had a life-threatening acute kidney disease and 2.6 million have undergone a transplant or are undergoing dialysis. Information, prevention, early diagnosis can make the difference for an optimal therapeutic path and a better quality of life. Inequalities and injustices are still present in access to treatment for these diseases. The reason why chronic disease is underestimated is that it progresses for years asymptomatically. On the occasion of today’s World Kidney Day, 10 March 2022, my thoughts can only go to patients with kidney disease in Ukraine; Continuity of care for dialysis, transplantation and healthcare must be absolutely guaranteed. Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova are currently providing essential care to dialysed and transplanted refugees from Ukraine, but there are concerns that their local health infrastructure will soon be overloaded; We need to help, we need to help the frontline countries. Finally, I want to express all my solidarity and closeness to the doctors, nurses, all the health personnel of Ukraine who are strenuously engaged in these hours to ensure care for their compatriots.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the world of work has already been transformed by the bursting of new technologies, above all artificial intelligence, which force us, these technologies, to urgently reprogramme the social and employment policies of our countries. I want to talk about this because, as rapporteur for the regulation on artificial intelligence, I am working to shape a new European approach on artificial intelligence that puts man at the centre, the human being, balancing the need for a regulatory framework that fosters innovation, yes, but at the same time protects fundamental rights, including the right to healthy, safe and decent working conditions, which is the subject of this important work that we are discussing today. More and more often the work is supervised and coordinated by algorithms, by big data, which trace workers' productivity, their position, their vital signs, micro-facial expressions; We cannot allow the office and factory to be transformed into Orwellian environments. The physical and mental health of workers must not be jeopardised. We need new rules, because machines must be at the service of man and not the other way around.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 'there is no greatness where there is no truth': These are the words of Tolstoy, whom David Sassoli quoted a few months ago, addressing Putin. And even today truth is needed to achieve the greatness of peace: this is the truth of the Ukrainian people, who were able to resist heroically, together with President Zelensky; the truth of a Europe that is finally committed to its political, energy and defence sovereignty and is not afraid to make sacrifices to find a single voice to stop the war and save lives because, first of all, there are the victims, the dead in Ukraine, the refugees to be welcomed, the courageous Russians who do not want this militarist delusion of Putin, knowing that every people, starting from the Ukrainian one, must be free to self-determination without something bad happening if it tries to decide its own future. That is why we give all the necessary support to those who today, defending themselves, also defend our democracies on Ukrainian soil. But we have to be braver still, we have to be there: our governments and the European institutions go with a delegation to Kiev to urge a ceasefire and to support the negotiations. Putin will have to stop and it will be even more evident, even to his fellow citizens, his insanity and his inhuman war. For a free Ukraine and a free Europe!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, the Socialists and Democrats Group has always been at the forefront of protecting workers from the risks associated with exposure to harmful substances in the workplace. The agreement reached between Parliament and the Council on updating the Carcinogens Directive is a good agreement, which we strongly support. Applying the same approach to reprotoxic substances such as carcinogens and mutagens will ensure better protection for workers, legal coherence and a level playing field between Member States. Fighting cancer requires ambitious solutions and a clear strategic plan, with measures that touch on all regulatory fronts, in line with what we voted on yesterday in the report of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer. Updating is therefore a central component to ensure safe and healthy jobs. We also call on the European Commission to put on the table a revision of the asbestos directive, a substance that is still present in many buildings in Europe although it was banned as early as 2005. European citizens have the right to a safe workplace. There is no job worth dying for.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the students of many high schools in Italy are occupying schools in protest, to ask for safety at school and in places where you learn a job, to have rights and a chance for a better future. They do this thinking of Lorenzo Parelli, 18, and Giuseppe Lenoci, 16, two boys who alternated school and work in the company and who died. These students who are protesting are doing well, they are right, let us face the reality of the situation of a significant part of European youth: unemployment, precariousness, in-work poverty, undeclared work, zero-hour contracts, inadequate school systems, insufficient resources for schools and training. Colleagues, once again you have on your desk today a concrete proposal to improve the situation of thousands of young people, to ban unpaid traineeships in the Union, a form of exploitation and replacement of workers, a real shame, the result of a sick culture. I hope that, after so many beautiful words heard in this Chamber today, you have all really done the right thing by voting on this text, because it is about the future and the dignity of the new generations.

(IT) Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, you should know that a few years ago, on one of the rare occasions when this incredible slacker of politics appeared in this European Parliament of which he was a member, Senator Matteo Salvini, then a Member of the European Parliament, showed up in this Chamber in a T-shirt depicting Putin, who, in his opinion, was unfairly attacked by what he called the 'Eurocretins'. Then I wonder if you would also call the leader of your party, the League leader Marco Zanni, a "Eurocretin", who explained to us today in this House that Putin's regime is a regime - what a discovery! – and that the territorial integrity of Ukraine must be defended at all costs. But do you think, you sovereignists of the extreme right, that people are without memory, have forgotten about Savoini, the Metropol hotel, the ongoing investigations into alleged Russian funding of the League? We are not without memory! Overcoming the current crisis requires a serious policy, firmness in the face of the threat of Russian aggression and a new European security architecture involving everyone. I believe that this must be the role of the European Union, today and for the future, in order to regain a place in history.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the shadow rapporteurs for their constructive cooperation, the Commission for its leading role and all the stakeholders who have contributed to the debate on this issue, which is so important for the future of our children. I am confident that the report will receive broad support, given the unanimous vote in the Committee on the Internal Market and the interventions of colleagues, from which I derive a clear feeling of harmony with the work done, compared to these months of negotiation together. We are therefore awaiting the proposal to revise the directive. We are ready to cooperate fully with the Commission on an ambitious and future-oriented text that provides clear, clear and strong protection for children, legal certainty and an opportunity for development for the many small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector. Thanks again to all of you.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, according to the latest report on the European system for the notification of dangerous products, toys are among the products with the most reports from national authorities: 27% of the total in 2019. Play is a key moment for children's motor and cognitive development, but it can also expose them to numerous health risks, not necessarily visible at the time but also with long-term impact. This is why toy legislation is a key tool. Directive 2009/48/EC has certainly played a positive role so far, but some problems of flexibility and inconsistencies remain to be corrected, as well as the need to address the new challenges emerging from both the latest scientific evidence and new technologies. In the report we examine these points and make proposals to the Commission and the Member States. An important aspect is that of chemicals, where we encounter various problems. Derogations for substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction provide for too high a concentration of those substances to ensure effective protection. Given their high risk to children's health, we call for consideration to be given to reducing the possibility of derogation. The limit values for nitrosamines in the Directive are too high, as the Commission itself admits, and must be reduced at least to the threshold already adopted, for example, in Germany, by way of derogation from the Directive. We also call for a serious assessment of whether the distinction for chemicals between toys for children under 36 months and others should be removed. A child remains vulnerable even at 37 months of age, not to mention that this distinction also allows you to easily circumvent the norm, declaring that a game is reserved for children over that age even when it is not so. These points cannot currently be amended without a long-term codecision procedure. That is also why we have called for a revision of the directive, which we are pleased to see has been confirmed in the meantime by the Commission itself. We therefore call for this opportunity to be used to convert the directive into a regulation, so that it is directly applicable in all Member States. We call for the commitments made also on toys by the Commission with the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability to be kept. Among others, I mention extending the generic approach to risk management to endocrine disruptors, to ensure that these substances are also banned in toys. The revision can also be an opportunity to explore the possibility of including elements on lifespan and reparability in labelling, to increase sustainability aspects also in toys, in line with circular economy objectives. As regards new technologies, the emergence of toys connected to or using artificial intelligence poses new challenges, highlighting the particular vulnerability of children to external manipulation or localisation. We need to take these aspects into account, in this and other legislative instruments, from cybersecurity, to connected products, to artificial intelligence, because the issue of children's privacy and mental health has become more pressing as these products are increasingly present in their lives. I conclude by addressing one of the fundamental problems for the safety of toys today, namely the proliferation of dangerous games, especially online. I want to make a premise: The vast majority of the toy sector in Europe is made up of small and medium-sized enterprises that make great efforts – it must be recognised – to place on the market only games that comply with all the rules. Unfortunately, not all other producers are so interested in complying with them. This is why the problem will not be solved if there is no decisive action by the so-called marketplace in controlling their sellers and preventing the reappearance of unsafe games, already removed from their platforms. Market surveillance authorities are fully engaged and certainly need to do even more, especially in some Member States, to coordinate better and make use of new technologies, but they need resources and cannot cover everything. Therefore, the outcome of the ongoing negotiations on the European Digital Services Act will be crucial to improve the situation and ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. These are the main issues raised in the report that we will be voting on tomorrow and which I hope will have broad support from the whole of the European Parliament.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are asking the Commission how the European Union can strengthen the role of young people after the pandemic, but we already know the answer: the situation of precariousness, exploitation and social exclusion, which affects too many in a structural way, must be broken. I would like to remind you that this Parliament has already voted to ban unpaid internships and traineeships, an initiative that was supported by our dear President Sassoli, as also mentioned in the Chamber last Monday in the words of my party secretary Enrico Letta. A new legal instrument is needed to ensure fair remuneration for interns, trainees and apprentices in the EU labour market. An ambitious directive on platform work, which affects some 30 million workers, especially young people, is needed to put an end to the big lie that always wants to categorise them as self-employed. We need to fight for the new minimum wage directive and we need to introduce adequate protections for all contracts. With NextGenerationEU, we are going to really invest in the future of young people, because we need young people to be not only the future but the present of our Union.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot tolerate the unconditional protection of sexual and reproductive rights being questioned in the European Union, but unfortunately we see it and this Parliament has had to deal with this issue several times. The de facto ban on abortion, for example in countries such as Poland, in addition to the continuous attack on the rights and dignity of women, are shameful and must be strongly opposed, because they are de facto actions contrary to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Parliament must therefore take the part, together with the Commission and the Council, in those movements of women and men calling for guarantees on these issues, on essential issues such as the right to safe and legal termination of pregnancy, menstrual hygiene, sexual education, contraception, combating gender-based violence and homotransphobia. In my country, Italy, the right has managed to block a law precisely for this reason, the Zan law, but we will continue to fight for it to be approved and for there to be a real protection full of these rights throughout Europe. We expect the new President of the European Parliament to make a personal and direct commitment to this issue. We want to see concrete action and a really clear agenda, as Parliament has carried it forward to date and will have to continue to do so with the utmost hardness, commitment and strength.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Digital Services Act will lead to a real revolution, rebalancing the power relationship between platforms and users, giving consumers more protection, transparency on terms and conditions, choice on how to prioritise content and a right to compensation in the event of infringements, and will finally give greater responsibility to marketplaces, which will have to ascertain the identity of those who sell their products there and carry out random checks on them, finally placing serious limits on the proliferation of unsafe or counterfeit products online. Platforms will no longer be able to manipulate users, for example by hiding options to deny consent to profiling. The largest will then have to mitigate even more the systemic risks posed by their power over people and democracies themselves. Algorithms will no longer be inaccessible black boxes, but will finally be subject to that accountability which they have so far escaped. With these historic measures we put into practice the warnings that, for example, the whistleblower Frances Haugen, a courageous whistleblower for democracy, gave us a few months ago even when she came to meet MEPs. We cannot miss this unique opportunity to re-establish a healthy and just digital environment for all. So, thanks to the work of colleagues, thanks to the work of the rapporteur, Mrs Schaldemose. I am sure that we are going to take a really important step to give more rights and more freedom to all European citizens in the digital space.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, since 1 January 2021, the Austrian Federal Government of Tyrol has unilaterally banned the overnight passage of heavy goods vehicles passing through the Brenner Pass, with the exception of electric or hydrogen vehicles. However, this ban is not enforced if the vehicles are Austrian. As the Italian delegation of the Democratic Party, in the Socialists and Democrats we firmly believe that environmental protection policies are a priority for today's and future legislation, and we will always be at the forefront of defending them, but they cannot be implemented in a completely discriminatory manner. Therefore, we cannot fail to consider how these measures represent a real road blockade, which damages our country and beyond. The Brenner Pass is a key route for the transport of goods by road throughout the European Union. The damage produced by the blockade of the crossing, which sees over 40 million tons of goods transiting per year, is estimated to be approximately 370 million euros for each hour of delay in crossing and 100 million euros per year for the greater journey times related to the alternative passage by rail. We believe that these rules, which affect one of the main transport lanes in the Union, can hinder the free movement of goods in the internal market and should therefore be prohibited. With this question, we ask the European Commission whether it has considered how to reconcile the different interests at stake: the free movement of goods, health protection and the environment. Furthermore, we would like to know whether it intends to take action to overcome these unilateral and discriminatory restrictions or to find alternatives agreed at European level to restore free movement and the proper functioning of the market. Italy, like all EU countries, is emerging from a phase of socio-economic crisis linked to the pandemic. It is therefore essential that, together with environmental protection, we always consider the importance of recovery for the economic sectors that have suffered the most in this difficult period.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a few weeks ago I visited the border area between Poland and Belarus, an intolerable situation in a climate of terror for migrants and those trying to help them, that is what I found. The lives of thousands of people, including many women and children, crushed between the grip of frost and that of politics because of the shameful action of Lukashenko, but also because of the inadequate response of the European Union, which has the legal and moral duty to help those people. Walls are being raised instead of providing protection for families in difficulty, derogations from the right to asylum are being proposed, as recently done by the Commission, to speed up return procedures instead of reception and solidarity procedures. That's not good. Faced with the needs brought by the pandemic, the Union has shown that it is able to make just and courageous choices, unthinkable only a few months before. European leaders meeting in the Council should therefore find a solution to the refugee crisis by overcoming the Dublin system, creating a new model based on solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility. We find again, as Europeans, our humanity today abandoned at the borders of Europe.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, strengthening the tools of democracy in the workplace is today a necessity to govern the impact of the digital ecological transition on society and employment. Too often strategic decisions of companies, which concern the organization of work, investments, mergers, acquisitions or even mass redundancies take place without any involvement of workers' representatives or without even informing them. We need to change direction. In recent years I have taken part in a European project, together with my colleagues from Fisac CGIL and UNI Europa, which has analysed the effectiveness of the current European directives on employee involvement and I am pleased to note that many of the conclusions we have drawn are also an integral part of Mrs Bischoff's report, which I thank. The time has come for a revision of the European Works Council Directive to strengthen and make truly effective the right to information and consultation. These EWCs are an essential tool, but imperfect and too little used. We will soon begin work on the legislative own-initiative report on the reform of works councils and I am convinced that we will be able to find the necessary ambition to add a new element to the construction of tomorrow's social Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 'the European Parliament urges the Member States to ban neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups and any other foundation or association that glorifies and glorifies Nazism and fascism', says the resolution entitled 'Increase in neo-fascist violence in Europe', adopted on 25 October 2018. It's been three years, but things haven't improved. In Rome, neo-fascist-inspired formations infiltrated protest movements, storming and ravaging the national headquarters of the CGIL, a hundred years after similar attacks by Mussolini's fascists. Let's talk about the largest Italian union, to which I also want to bring from here the solidarity of our parliamentary group, as already done by taking to the streets this weekend, to the secretary Maurizio Landini, to the other unions and Italian trade union leaders. The ultra-nationalist right wing of this Parliament has failed by trying to prevent this debate, which is now necessary. But as I said at the beginning, the European Parliament already has a clear position, in line with what the Democratic Party in Italy is also asking for: Neo-fascist and neo-Nazi formations, such as Forza Nuova and others, must be dissolved. We need a tough reaction. Thanks to the investigations of the free press, Fanpage and Piazzapulita in Italy, we have discovered that this black galaxy tries to infiltrate even the parties with funding and choosing people of reference. I demand less reticence from the European and Italian right, less stammering when it comes to defending our democracy against subversion together. I address Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini, we have seen on your part too much shyness in recognizing the evident political matrix of these attacks. Shame on you at least a little and try for once to live up to the history of Europe that emerged from Nazi-fascism and the Italian Constitution, born from the blood sacrifice of the Resistance.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, President Charles Michel is called upon to run a meeting of the European Council which opens in a very heavy climate, and we had a taste of it yesterday during the debate with the embarrassing show by Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki here in the Chamber. But I would also like to recall the shameful outings of the last few days of Slovenian Prime Minister Janša who, instead of honouring and respecting the institutions he must represent as President-in-Office of the Union, attacked fellow MEPs – including my Socialists and Democrats political family – and called some MEPs ‘Soros puppets’, forcing President Sassoli to intervene and demand respect. I would therefore like to express my full solidarity with my colleagues and kindly ask Prime Minister Janša to spend less time on Twitter and to put his Presidency to work to respond to real and very urgent issues, such as the emergency of energy prices, which every day erodes the purchasing power of European citizens and requires strong actions, and the management of the pandemic, which in some countries sees dramatically higher numbers. We need a European summit that deals with real issues, not with the propaganda of the sovereignist right, and with leaders who are up to the task.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, with the election of Biden, the United States has turned the page, abandoning unilateralism and bringing the debate back to the multilateral level, albeit with an uneven attitude, let us think, for example, of the Afghan affair, which relaunches the need for strategic autonomy and European defence. But there are many issues to work on together. I am thinking of climate neutrality by 2050, a fundamental point on which to re-found our transatlantic relationship. Then I think about the issue of rights, the recent anti-abortion law voted in the state of Texas, which represents a step back for women's freedom, an issue on which we are also carrying out work and a battle in Europe. I am also thinking of the issue of digital, the regulation of artificial intelligence and the transatlantic flow of data, a truly crucial and complex issue. Here, we have a lot, a lot to do and I hope that the European Parliament and the American Congress can work together to design a more sustainable and fairer future for our planet.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, following the important vote in the last plenary session on the inclusion of gender-based violence as a 'Eurocrime', which is therefore a particularly serious crime on which the Union can set minimum standards for defining crimes and sanctions, this Parliament is once again expressing its views on the sensitive issue of gender-based violence by partners and its impact on children and custody decisions. We are not just talking about femicide, which is the most serious expression of it. In fact, gender-based domestic violence manifests itself in many ways, from psychological violence to financial violence, in particular, but not only, in cases of economic dependence, and has serious repercussions also on children. A problem that has also increased in our country, in Italy, during the pandemic, with forced coexistence in confined spaces and that asks us, even more so, to act with an all-round strategy. With this report, we reaffirm the importance of the Istanbul Convention and call on those Member States which have not yet done so to ratify it. We point out how, during the pandemic, violence against LGBT people has also increased. We call for allegations of violence to be examined in court before decisions on child custody are taken, and for child custody to never be shared in such cases, so as not to further increase contact with the violent partner. We call for the regulation on decisions in matrimonial and parental matters, the so-called "Brussels 2a", to be extended also to unmarried couples and also same-sex couples, and for Member States to prevent the use in court of the "parental alienation syndrome", which has no scientific evidence, to assess cases of violence or the suitability to care for children. We also point to the need to establish minimum standards at European level on how to conduct hearings of children in a protected environment and with properly trained staff. We also call for broader measures from increased funds for the protection of victims, to their full access to protection systems, to a common European protocol to combat violence against women in times of crisis. And we reiterate the importance of a broad, truly general intervention that promotes gender equality and economic independence, sex education and education, the role of the media in combating stereotypes. We must realise that gender-based domestic violence is still a scourge of our societies, far from being a legacy of the past, a scourge to be eradicated by all means at national and European level.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, while Parliament is preparing to examine the proposal for a regulation on artificial intelligence, with this report we are giving a clear message and already making an important point: In our view, there is no place in Europe for mass biometric surveillance and security and the fight against crime cannot be at the expense of citizens' fundamental rights. Indeed, identification by means of biometric data in publicly accessible places risks leading to serious abuses of the right to privacy and other underlying principles of our democratic systems. The European Data Protection Supervisor said: these systems would have a direct negative impact on the exercise of freedom of expression, assembly, association and even freedom of movement. Let us then think about what could happen in places that are not so attentive to the separation of powers or fundamental freedoms, be they states or cities. The risk of abuse is too high. That is why we believe that the exceptions to Article 5 on prohibited practices in the proposal for a regulation should be removed. Similarly, predictive techniques for law enforcement bring with them a very serious risk of discrimination, in addition to the lack of evidence on their accuracy, undermining one of the fundamental foundations of our democratic systems, namely the presumption of innocence. No human oversight or error-free datasets will be sufficient to ensure that such decisions by AI systems are made respecting constitutional guarantees and fundamental rights of the Union, even where these decision-making processes are reversible. A fortiori, these systems cannot undergo a mere conformity self-assessment before being placed on the market, as proposed by the Regulation in its first draft before us. A self-assessment exposes people to unacceptable risks of errors and violations, which would only be discovered later by the supervisory authorities if they had the means to do so, and this would result in damage that has now occurred, even irreparable, to people's lives. We already have the world's most advanced data protection laws in the EU today. For us it is a model, a model that we want to bring to the rest of the world, and we cannot afford to retreat even a millimeter from this setting when we find ourselves regulating artificial intelligence. In this area too, we must fully protect the rights of citizens. I think this is how we can act for a Europe that has its own model centered on the human rights of artificial intelligence.

Madam President, Madam President von der Leyen, ladies and gentlemen, what would Altiero Spinelli and the founding fathers and mothers of European integration say about the last twenty years, which began with the explosion of globalisation and the attack on the Twin Towers and Afghanistan? They'd tell us: How much time did you lose while the world was running? But they would also tell us that today we are finally on the right track. The dramas we have experienced have led to a reaction, today we are working on debt and common taxation, to reform the fiscal rules. We have a massive vaccination campaign that must continue, as well as the construction of social Europe, technological sovereignty, environmental transition, common defence, humanitarian corridors, the protection of LGBT and women's rights. On all these issues you, Mr President, have used courageous words, but we want to see them put into practice. If he does, he will have Parliament on his side. A federal, supportive and democratic Europe may seem impossible but it is not so, as we have heard from our Bebe Vio, then it can be done, indeed it must be done.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, after years of stalemate, we conclude the revision of the Blue Card Directive, a necessary tool to make the European Union attractive to talent and highly skilled workers. I am pleased to have contributed to this file as rapporteur for the S&D Group in the EMPL Committee. Since the last legislature, this instrument has been important to us as a proposal for highly qualified workers, for universities and companies that needed it. We have combated the risks of social and wage dumping, we have broadened the scope of the directive to include seasonal workers and those enjoying international protection. The outcome of the negotiations, however, is partially satisfactory, because we needed to be more ambitious by creating a single European instrument, replacing national ones – I am addressing governments – but we have achieved a lot, thanks to the work of our rapporteur Javier Moreno, whom I want to thank, a useful instrument that we will relaunch in order to build a more united and more open Europe in the world.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we must say clearly that the European Union cannot go back to the austerity policies of the past. The pandemic has shown the need and usefulness of investment and social policy choices that many of us were proposing well before this last year and a half. We are now moving forward with the reform of the Stability Pact, which takes into account a new golden rule for social and environmental investment and for inclusive digitalisation, so that it becomes a sustainability pact. So we can support European growth with more work, with the necessary reforms, with less inequality for all Europeans, starting with the youngest. A new season is possible. We learn from the mistakes of the past and don't go back.