What Gabriele spoke about.

6 Jun

2022

DE Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, We negotiated this resolution last week and all weekend, and all the political groups in this House have approached the EPP. We have reduced a lot both in form and in content in order to have the EPP on board, as I said; I would like to make it clear once again: This is not an EPP resolution, but a resolution of the political groups in this House. And I would…

18 May

2022

DE Speech

Prosecution of the opposition and the detention of trade union leaders in Belarus (debate)

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Madam President, Colleagues! We have heard here that the situation in Belarus is getting worse and worse, that the KGB is brutally attacking, trade unionists imprisoning the leadership, threatening the people whose tools are being collected and thus trying to break up the trade union movement, in particular to intimidate the members so that they leave this federation, which is relatively small com…

18 May

2022

EN Speech

Commission’s 2021 Rule of Law Report (debate)

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Madam President, I send my congratulations to the rapporteur. To protect the rule of law is so essential, not only outside the EU, but especially inside the EU. I can’t resist answering this colleague from ECR. The simple fact in Europe is, if you want to become a member, if you want to stay a member in the European Union, you have to guarantee rule of law and democracy. It’s not a ‘nice to have’,…

3 May

2022

DE Speech

The follow up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I wished so much that all Members of Parliament had had the opportunity to participate in this future conference and to experience the citizens. They got together, and they really shared ownership of their proposals. The ambassadors they have appointed have also felt committed to these results. I hope that as Parliament, which has always been the driving forc…

2 May

2022

DE Speech

Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, This week, as a Parliament, we really have a great opportunity. We have the chance to write European history and to carry the European project a little further forward. The vote on this EU right to vote is about a few really central issues. Do we here in the House have the courage for more Europe? Do we have the courage for truly European elections for the Europ…

6 Apr

2022

DE Speech

Ongoing hearings under Article 7(1) TEU regarding Poland and Hungary (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, I believe – as Mrs Jourová has already said – that the previous debate on Russia funding extremist parties in Europe shows that it has an interest in destabilising Europe. If we continue to weaken our values of democracy and the rule of law, that would play into Putin's hands. That is why it is all the more important that we really defen…

5 Apr

2022

DE Speech

Question Time (Commission) - von der Leyen Commission: Two years on, implementation of the political priorities

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Thank you very much! May I take another look and ask: If the citizens are committed to this and if at the end it comes out that certain Treaty changes are needed, especially in the area of strengthening democracy and parliamentarism, what would, in your view, be three key points that we would then have to address and would you then also support accordingly?…

5 Apr

2022

DE Speech

Question Time (Commission) - von der Leyen Commission: Two years on, implementation of the political priorities

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Madam President, Madam President, I am pleased that you are here. I wanted to remind you once again that in our letter before your election as S&D, we called for an agenda of change, we campaigned for a future conference, we wanted to achieve a democratic push. And we have always seen this as part of or in preparation for a convention. It'll be ready in four weeks. We will have a report. We will h…

5 Apr

2022

DE Speech

EU Protection of children and young people fleeing the war against Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, This war is shaping an entire generation of children in Ukraine. But it also shapes a whole generation of young Europeans, children and young people, who are looking at how we deal with this war and how we deal with the children and young people who have fled. That's why it's important: The seven and a half million children in Ukraine who n…

23 Mar

2022

DE Speech

Debriefing of the European Council meeting in Paris on 10 March 2022 - Preparation of the European Council meeting 24-25 March 2022 (debate)

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Madam President, Millions of refugees have now arrived in Europe, millions of traumatised children, millions of women who had to leave their loved ones, their fathers, their brothers behind to seek protection in Europe. The majority of these refugees are in Poland. Poland has absorbed more than all the other EU countries combined – thank you for that. But also in my homeland, in Berlin, thousands …

9 Mar

2022

DE Speech

European Semester for economic policy coordination: annual sustainable growth survey 2022 – European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social aspects in the annual sustainable growth strategy survey 2022 (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, dear representative of the Council, dear representative of the Commission! The majority of the speakers here clearly see that we cannot now move forward in the routines of the European Semester. We are in a completely new situation, and therefore business as usual is not an option here at all. In the last crisis, we took the step to say: We need to strengthen…

8 Mar

2022

DE Speech

The deterioration of the situation of refugees as a consequence of the Russian aggression against Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, We are holding this debate here today on 8 March. This is International Women's Day, and a core requirement for over 100 years is: Bread and roses for women. We now see that we have over two million – mostly women and children – who seek security, who seek protection, and we really see a wave of solidarity in Europe. But what we can see – and I was able to convince myself in Berli…

8 Mar

2022

DE Speech

Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! For many years, we have been debating that democracy is in danger. We have a lot of studies showing that today we have more autocratic countries in the world than democracies and that today we are back to 1990 levels. And it is very clear – and that is why I am very pleased with Raphaël Glucksmann, the whole group that is now putting forward pro…

17 Feb

2022

DE Speech

Protection of workers from the risks relating to exposure to carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxins at work (continuation of debate)

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Honourable President, Honourable Commissioner! Let's be honest: European social policy, many people turn off and think: This has nothing to do with me, it does not affect me, most of it is decided at the national level anyway. Here, European directives show that European policy saves lives, hundreds of thousands of lives – in case of doubt, your colleagues, your friends, your relatives. And that's…

14 Feb

2022

DE Speech

Activities of the European Ombudsman – annual report 2020 (debate)

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Madam President, dear Mrs O'Reilly! I really want to thank you for your tireless commitment, for full transparency. They want to open the window wide so that citizens can really see how decisions are made. Some people just want to open a gap so that you can take a look. But we see how seriously you take your work, and I think that's important. I listened to your presentation. In fact: 2020 was a v…

20 Jan

2022

DE Speech

Empowering European Youth: post-pandemic employment and social recovery (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Secretary of State! I would like to start with a quote from a 16-year-old, which she made during a recording with us at the Bavarian Youth Ring; She said: “I can't go out and have my own experiences. All I have left is to read books about the lives of young people.” I think adolescence is really a phase of life that is irretrievable, experiences that can only be made at…

19 Jan

2022

FR Speech

Presentation of the programme of activities of the French Presidency (debate)

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Madam President, Mr President, Europe will be social or it will not be. Es ist kein Zufall, dass dieses geflügelte Wort in französischer Sprache nach Europa gekommen ist. Es gehört quasi zur DNA jeder französischen Präsidentschaft, das soziale Europa voranzubringen. Und ich stimme Ihnen absolut zu, dass die Ungleichheit das Friedensversprechen wirklich gefährdet. Und neue Studien wie von Oxfam zei…

14 Dec

2021

DE Speech

European framework for employees' participation rights and the revision of the European Works Council Directive (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner! I am pleased to be speaking here in this House today on a topic that is very, very close to my heart, and I believe most of those in this room. And I am also pleased, dear Nicolas, that you are part of our debate today, because that is an important signal from the Commission. We all know that we are really living in times of q…

22 Nov

2021

DE Speech

Introduction of a European social security pass for improving the digital enforcement of social security rights and fair mobility (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. We've heard it before: We talk about something for far too long, but it is not done concretely. This is our problem here: We've been talking about it since 2014, and no one will deny that we live in the digital age and have completely different options now. Only in the world of social security coordination has this not been the case at all. We've b…

11 Nov

2021

DE Speech

Statute and funding of European political parties and foundations (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner! I am pleased to be standing here as a shadow rapporteur and to note that, as the European Parliament, we have very clear ideas that we want to strengthen political parties and foundations in Europe, that this is important in order to really create a European public sphere, that European political parties can also play a greater role, including in the Member States, a…

19 Oct

2021

EN Speech

General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 - all sections (debate)

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Madam President, indeed, I’m speaking on behalf of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. We contributed to this resolution and I would really like to reiterate the need for allocation of proper financial means for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs’ to be able to respond to its priorities in the next budget. I would like to reiterate that communication with citizens is essential here. The …

18 Oct

2021

DE Speech

Employment and social policies of the euro area 2021 (debate)

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– Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner! Thank you to the rapporteur! The report really contains everything we need for reconstruction and, in fact, for more resilience in the economy and in society! This is more important than ever in the pandemic, as many have already said. We have a compass. Our compass is the pillar of social rights, which must be applied more strongly here. That…

15 Sep

2021

DE Speech

Reversing the negative social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (debate)

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Dear President, Commissioner! I was wondering today: How many times this year has the Commission actually quoted the number of Eurobarometers that nine out of ten European women say that European, social Europe and the capacity to act are very important to them? And I was wondering today: Where was social Europe in the State of the Union speech? I barely discovered it. That is why I am pleased wit…

13 Sep

2021

DE Speech

Fair working conditions, rights and social protection for platform workers - New forms of employment linked to digital development (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner! I believe that this debate clearly shows that we cannot allow slave-like new forms of work to be created, but that they are, so to speak, in a hip guise. But it is nothing more than a relapse into pre-modern times, in principle before industrialization. And we have labour rights and co-determination, we have won the generations before us, and they are protected by la…

5 Jul

2021

DE Speech

Amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure (short presentation)

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Madam President, Madam Vice-President! We will vote this week on my report amending the Rules of Procedure. This is a bit like the road traffic regulations: It sets very clear rules for how we work and creates a high level of legal certainty. Due to the pandemic, we have already recently decided to amend the Rules of Procedure so that we can continue to function. This had to be done quickly, we ha…