Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, the discussion on the European global approach to research and innovation comes during a historical period where the enhancement of cooperation in the scientific field can contribute to making the power of reason and knowledge prevail over weapons. A strong Europe that is a point of reference on research and innovation does not, however, happen overnight. It requires a long-term vision that aims not only to achieve strategic autonomy, which is very much urgent, but is also based on the assumption that global societal challenges such as climate change and health emergencies have no borders. Building bridges with the scientific communities of our partners and an extensive multilateral cooperation grounded in reciprocity are key to make our European R and I system as open as possible, as closed as necessary, and to support our values from academic freedom to gender equality. This is the reason why I urge the European Commission to develop an ambitious science diplomacy agenda that promotes European soft power of research and innovation.

Ms President, data is one of the most valuable commodities of our time, with wide applications from environment to health, from transport to tourism. Despite this, Europe did not have a clear framework that would allow the use of such a crucial element in the digital society. Harmonising data management in the European Union, which facilitates operability across all sectors, is crucial. The data governance act is therefore one of the first concrete steps to factually support the shift in the digital sector. All parties concerned must be involved in this process with special attention to small and medium-sized businesses. I am very confident that this law will make life easier for small and new businesses wishing to fully exploit their potential in the field of data, even under more favourable conditions. Now, we must continue to work towards making the digital decade more inclusive, also to create a reassuring environment where data is used to address the world's most imminent challenges right now.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the unprecedented crisis we’re facing on our eastern borders exacerbates the already difficult situation with energy prices being on the rise since 2021. Such a scenario not only means higher electricity and gas bills for citizens and businesses, but also negative impacts on our value chains and higher prices even on very basic items, breads, pasta, biscuits, coffee to mention just a few. Who is going to bear the costs? Consumers and small businesses. We should not forget that security of supply is an essential pillar of our energy union. Renewables are the solution in the long-term, yet for the time being, we need to be realistic, diversifying sources provision and supporting the most vulnerable, especially those in small and peripheral Member States that depend on imports. Therefore, it’s important that we monitor the situation and act to make sure that we really leave no one behind.

Madam President, cohesion policy represents one of the most successful examples of European integration, which can help us reduce inequalities among European regions, especially the most peripheral ones. While the eighth report on cohesion has shown us that there are still significant gaps that we need to bridge, a swift implementation for the programming period 2021-2027 would mean to give concrete answers to citizens and small businesses in such difficult and uncertain times. Ahead of International Women’s Day, I’d like to reiterate the call of the report on cohesion policy and gender dimension, a dossier on which I worked last year for the application of gender budgeting in all stages of the evaluation, implementation and monitoring of the European structural and investment funds. Let me conclude by stressing the importance of ensuring gender-sensitive partnership agreements that can also contribute towards reducing inequalities between men and women, fighting the feminisation of poverty, combating women’s exclusion from many economic opportunities and preventing gender-based violence and all forms of discrimination.

Mr President, the new rules on coordinating travel were much needed. The tourism sector cannot sustain the halt of travel any longer. The ecosystem is suffering and, whilst we celebrate this positive step forward, we must keep in mind that coordinating travel will not necessarily translate into higher volumes on its own. In fact, we must continue working on other elements to the puzzle, for example, the aviation sector anticipating higher costs for travellers, especially considering the sharp rise in fuel prices, and travel anxiety, which remains in case travellers test positive whilst abroad and are caught up in quarantine with the ancillary costs involved. We must continue addressing these issues at EU and national level. Jump-starting a sector that contributes 10% to EU GDP will require a continuous concentrated effort. The EU has been active through the introduction of the digital certificate, the Re-open EU app, the safe relaxation of state-aid rules, but we want a continuation of this effort, as well as greater effort by all Member States. A key word must be stated here: resilience. In the process of defining the EU’s strategy for tourism, we must gather lessons learnt and prepare contingency plans in the eventuality of future disruptions. Resilience, in my opinion, is not adequately mentioned and emphasised in the transition path to a conclusion, and must be at the heart of our recovery if we want to avoid new interruption of travel in the short and long term. Tourism cannot stop again.

Mr President, sexual harassment exists, as colleagues have stated, everywhere. When I came to this Parliament, the MeToo movement had already named the elephant in the room. Yes, harassment is also present in this house. It’s present on the streets, at workplaces, on public transportation, day and night alike, everywhere, and everyone could be affected, including politicians and workers across the board. Why is it present? Because some abuse their position of power and feel entitled to, because they have not been punished for their acts, or have not been addressed in a way that helps them, via training, to avoid this in the future. Victims are often too afraid and uncomfortable to speak up and proceed. Yes, even in this house to this day. Thank you to the Socialists, Evelyn Regner and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) for promoting this. It’s not enough to raise awareness; we need concrete measures and actions. Compulsory training for MEPs is not a violation of their freedom, as some have claimed. Being abused and made to fear for one’s integrity or job security, and having one’s mental health at stake is. I do welcome the progress made thanks to the MeToo movement advocacy. However, there are institutional changes which need to be effected: an independent, timely and fair process to ensure victims of harassment will be given adequate and effective protection, uprooting sexism and gender stereotypes. We need a radical change of mentality to confine sexual harassment to the pages of history books, pages that we do not want to open again. Here we need education. As the European Parliament, we should lead by example, raising awareness and promoting a truly zero—harassment policy to make sure victims are protected, not victimised. Let us effectively unite and act against any form of harassment and discrimination.

Mr President, transport poverty is a reality in the European Union. It exists in urban areas, our villages, coastal regions and islands. The problem has an impact on low-income families across Europe, and also on people with disabilities who do not have sufficient access. For this reason we must design mobility plans and investments in a targeted and specific way, also for different regions. We must be realistic, we must make sure that the poor and vulnerable are not the ones who pay the highest price in the environmental transition. What happens when old cars are stopped? Prices increase. This is why we want to make sure that compensation mechanisms are designed and that just transition policies accompany the green deal. But not only. Better use of data, free public transport, as being implemented in countries, Malta, and promotions of alternative solutions such as car pooling must become a reality. Let’s embrace our values of inclusiveness and free movement by tackling transport poverty with facts.

Mr President, the scenario that Europe is experiencing this year, with rising energy prices and still slightly high dependency on third countries, shows us that there is still some way to go to achieve the goals of the Energy Union. How can we get to that? By working, truly effective market integration, improving security of supply through appropriate infrastructure so that no country is left behind, regardless of its dimension or geographical location. The continued deployment of renewables also confirms that the future is progressing and that research and innovation in clean technologies are crucial if we are to see renewables more used and affordable. The success of all dimensions of the Energy Union will further contribute to building a cleaner Europe which should also be amicable for both consumers and businesses.

I welcome the Agreement of the Parliament and the Council on the European Partnership on Metrology and would like to thank the Rapporteur for this result that we have all achieved together and of its work. While metrology, measurement science, is not yet well known, it represents one of the oldest scientific fields of study. I wanted to say that the ancient Egyptians and those living in Babylon already used uniform measurement standards. Metrology is important in our daily lives, from health to manufacturing, from trade to connectivity, the quality of measurement has a cross-cutting impact on our Union’s priorities. And more generally on the green and digital transition we want to make. Research results in this area are more tangible than we can imagine. Let's think for example about monitoring CO2 emissions and air pollution in general, health diagnostics and even smart networks. These are all concrete examples of how reliable measurement standards can concretely address societal challenges. The new metrology partnership will represent a way forward to give this science the visibility it deserves while also ensuring the inclusiveness of research infrastructure and a more restrictive participation of our scientists and SMEs. The agreement between Parliament and the Council will also contribute to closing the persistent investment gap in terms of metrological capacities and to keeping pace with other global actors that financially support this sector to have a much stronger sector also from the European Union. As a European Parliament we must be vigilant in ensuring that this partnership achieves its objectives while increasing scientific exchanges among national metrology institutes.

Madam President, the European partnerships on research and innovation represent the first concrete step towards implementing Horizon Europe and making it able to tackle the most urgent challenges our Union is facing: to build back better, greener and more digital. As the S&D negotiator on this file, I welcome the work the European Parliament has carried out, and I would like to thank colleagues, especially our rapporteur, Maria da Graça Carvalho. Whilst the name of the dossier ‘Joint Undertakings’ is probably not the catchiest way to refer to important research partnerships, their potential is vast and enormous. From healthcare to hydrogen, from clean aviation to digital connectivity, the European partnerships will greatly contribute towards making Europe more competitive, while fostering collaboration between the public sector and industrial players, including innovative small and medium-sized enterprises. To live up to the expectations of our citizens and businesses, we must ensure that research has a truly effective societal impact. European partnerships will contribute to this goal by enhancing the inclusiveness of innovation, strengthening the gender dimension, and improving the link between industrial research and skills for workers across the value chain. The use of public funds for research needs not only great accountability, but also the utmost effectiveness to make it serve the public good. I look forward to working more on this subject together.

78% of European citizens and 86% of Maltese citizens consider climate change to be a very serious problem. These are the figures of the latest Eurobarometer survey. However, we cannot take the strong public consensus to achieve climate neutrality as a mandate to be reassured. The "Fit for 55" package, although ambitious, will not be enough if the transition does not incorporate a truly social dimension. We cannot ignore the fact that the road to a cleaner Europe will cost a lot of money but we cannot accept that the most vulnerable pay the bill and the price are. No! Those in social housing, rural communities and those coming from islands, our small businesses, to name but a few examples, we need them with us to make our continent carbon neutral. They are also crucial for real change in practice. It is true, a sharp increase in energy prices is caused by several factors, including our dependence on suppliers coming outside the European Union. However, this is a call for us to show more unity, more pragmatism and ultimately, more solidarity that is equally important.

Ms President, this summer saw several positive signs for the tourism sector - air travel has increased and EU digital certificates have undoubtedly played a role in this. Businesses have adapted and even continued to make important investments, also respecting the established hygiene protocols. EU and national government financial support measures helped SMEs to survive the winter and plan for the summer. However we do not want to get an impression with another despite these positive signs. There are still several problems and the sector has yet to recover. Even in a scenario where we do not return to travel restrictions, European tourism will still need continued support. It is now time to defend our businesses and SMEs and extend funding schemes. I also ask the Commission to assess whether and how EU funds are reaching SMEs - are microenterprises being included that are less connected, politically and digitally, and that already face challenges due to insularity? Across Europe the tourism sector has meant that a lot of talent has been lost, the pandemic has pushed many workers to other sectors. The Commission together with the Member States should act swiftly to find a solution. I close by calling on the European platform for tourism jobs that compares employers and employees to ensure higher quality employment. Together with the Tourism Task Force we will continue to work in this sector.

Mr President, I am proud that during this debate I can bring forward the perspective of islands such as Malta and Gozo, which, although far from the centre, are European. And they can be a bridge not only between the European Union and the Mediterranean countries but also beyond – a cooperation that is essential. Focusing on social justice and work-life balance – you are right Ms President, the pandemic has taught us how precious time is. A Europe that is truly mindful of social rights, brings equality among citizens and in the various regions of the Member States. We must secure a future of prosperity for our young people. The European Year dedicated to Youth and the special programme for those without training and craftsmanship are important as regards why everyone deserves to experience European opportunities. I conclude by welcoming the fact that the Commission has recognised Malta’s work to strengthen the rule of law as well. Together, let's continue to work to strengthen journalistic protection and our rights and future.

Mr President, major fires affecting Mediterranean countries, floods in northern Europe and extremely high temperatures recorded in recent months. What happened this summer is the latest crystal clear example that we are already late in our fight against climate change. There is no doubt about this, we must act now and the environmental measures included in the Fit for 55 Package are setting an ambitious horizon. However, as a person with European social rights at heart, I cannot but repeat; Let us not abandon the most vulnerable citizens who are already struggling to get through electricity and water bills or travel. Let us not widen the inequality between urban and rural areas and of the periphery of the Union, i.e. those areas whose connectivity is already a challenge. We all know that this transition will not be easy but let's also make sure it is fair. Only with strong public consensus can we succeed in this regard.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the aviation sector and its workers are looking to Europe for help. Europe must respond. COVID-19 has created an unprecedented crisis which, if not addressed correctly, could lead to serious consequences: loss of connectivity, bankruptcy of regional airlines, financial difficulties for aviation-dependent companies, and higher costs for consumers. To avoid such consequences, the Commission must continue its relaxed state aid rules and promote public—private financial assistance. However, this should come with a condition. Even before Covid, another crisis was plaguing this industry. Increased competition led to a race to cut costs. The first to pay the price: workers. The result: among many, precarious atypical forms of employment. Such practices, as will help the sector recover, we must make sure that they become history. The Commission, the EU, must resolve the legal uncertainty surrounding contracts. We need to effectively apply the European Pillar of Social Rights to aviation legislation. We need, once and for all, to stand with aviation workers and ensure their rights.

Mr President, I welcome the efforts to strengthen the European research area - an area that needs a new impetus for the challenges ahead. Research and innovation are crucial to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the Union and we cannot neglect them. We should not forget that an innovative Europe means more quality jobs, more SMEs coping with the twin transition and more resilience to future shocks. Research on the continent offers great potential to exploit - as does an important opportunity for peripheral areas, including islands, to become testbeds for innovative solutions to the most pressing societal challenges. In this distribution we must also ensure that no one is left behind - female researchers still facing obstacles in STEM careers and those Member States still struggling to increase their performance in this sector. A new European research area requires everyone's contribution and to be successful and successful we want the youngest to be present and active.