What Irena spoke about.

17 Sep

2026

SL Speech

Protecting people’s health against toxic substances (debate)

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Mr. President! This debate was initially foreseen with a different, very clear title. It clearly indicated the perpetual chemicals – PFAS. And in it, or in the title, there was also a clear reference to the case of polluted groundwater in Croatia. And then the title went through an interesting clean-up action. Today, it only protects human health from toxic substances. It is a pity that 37,000 ton…

17 Sep

2026

SL Speech

An EU health workforce crisis plan: sustainability of healthcare systems and employment and working conditions in the healthcare sector (debate)

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Mr. President! Health systems stand on people who make sure that these systems are still functioning every day, but years of underinvestment, austerity and political delays have led, we know, unfortunately, to a serious crisis of health personnel and thus systems. There is a shortage of these workers across the Union. Those who remain are exhausted. Their burdens are increasing, their exposure to …

9 Jul

2026

EN Speech

Composition of committees and delegations

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Madam President, colleagues, I rise for a point of order under Rule 202, regarding Rules 60, 73 and 170, regarding the derogation that we will be voting today. This House has already sovereignly expressed its position and voted down this extension twice. The President had no mandate to ask the Council to proceed to a second reading, yet we are here today. This urgent procedure hit our agenda befor…

8 Jul

2026

SL Speech

2025 Commission report on Serbia (A10-0163/2026 - Tonino Picula)

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Madam President, the people of Serbia defend European values more courageously than many in this Chamber. Support from the European Union, at least at the highest level, does not get even a little, at most the opposite. Then you wonder why there is no trust in the European Union in Serbia. Since when is stability without democracy stability and since when are messages for non-progress being sent w…

8 Jul

2026

EN Speech

The EU’s role in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the accountability of Israel under international law (topical debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, some of you are talking about the reconstruction of Gaza as if the need arose from a natural disaster. Gaza was destroyed, and that destruction has a name: 'genocide'. It is astonishing that some still spend more energy avoiding that specific word rather than condemning what is happening – true champions of justice and peace, indeed. Now, one thing is to pay the bills, bu…

17 Jun

2026

SL Speech

2025 Commission report on North Macedonia (A10-0162/2026 - Thomas Waitz)

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Madam President, this report is a report on the European future of the Macedonian country. Why did I end up supporting it – although, of course, not the text as a whole? Because this country is not responsible for the obsession of some with its nation. You ask yourself, but you know: Who really has a problem here? Macedonians or those who can't even write an amendment without them, let alone a sub…

20 May

2026

SL Speech

Rights, support and protection of victims of crime (debate)

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Dear Sir/Madam, This directive is an important step forward because it finally strengthens the protection of victims, access to psychological assistance, the protection of privacy and the prevention of secondary victimisation – I will repeat – at last. But I'm afraid I have something else to say. Some in this Chamber very much like to talk about the protection of victims until the victim also dema…

20 May

2026

SL Speech

Recent proposals to fight poverty in the EU (debate)

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Dear – “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its most privileged citizens, but by how it treats those most vulnerable.” Of course, Nelson Mandela's quote is not randomly chosen. This is not just a nice moral reminder, it is a mirror of Europe and a real test of the anti-poverty strategy presented. Because poverty in Europe today has the face of people who are working, who are struggling …

19 May

2026

SL Speech

Question Time with the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy - EU’s strategy to address the current crises in the Middle East

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Mrs Kallas, your facial expressions do not go unnoticed when, for example, you are being asked questions about the double standards of the European Union. And this is not meant to be a criticism, because personally, let's say, I prefer this to some forced political correctness. But the problem is that many European citizens feel that Brussels is becoming more tired of questions about Gaza than of …

19 May

2026

SL Speech

EU cybersecurity and preparedness in view of advanced AI systems (debate)

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Madam President! If today someone can use a single algorithm to paralyze a hospital, erase confidence in elections, or trigger panic among millions, then cybersecurity is no longer just a technological topic, is it? Who will make the rules in the future: democratic institutions or non-transparent systems without accountability? When one hacker with publicly available artificial intelligence hacked…

29 Apr

2026

SL Speech

Topical debate requested by a political group (PfE) (Rule 169) - Commission interference in democratic process and elections (topical debate)

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Mr. President! There is no need to think twice about who is behind the title of this debate on the Commission's alleged interference in democracy. Patriots, of course. Patriots only in the name, but in fact defenders of foreign interests, European not under any other way. We are already accustomed to these perverse games of blaming someone for your actions, but in this debate, this propaganda is p…

29 Apr

2026

EN Speech

EU strategy in response to the ongoing Middle East crisis, its implications on energy prices and the availability of fertilizers (joint debate)

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Madam President, many believe that politics and integrity don't go together. I believe they do – if one dares, of course. Our responses to the Middle East situation are predictable, too slow and, above all, ineffective and selective. So when Merz speaks about Trump in a way that normalises dangerous escalation in Iran, that's not even Realpolitik. It's irresponsible. The EU must not follow the imp…

27 Apr

2026

SL Speech

Importance of consent-based rape legislation in the EU (debate)

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Mr. President! Consent. Basically a very simple concept, colleagues, even if you want to turn it around, there on the right above all. There can be no different interpretations, never and nowhere. This concept follows questions with only one of two possible answers: "Yes" or "No"? That's it. And as a child, you are not always happy when, say, your mother says ‘no’. Ask my five-year-old daughter, I…

11 Mar

2026

SL Speech

Child sexual abuse online: protect children, not perpetrators (topical debate)

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9 Mar

2026

SL Speech

Gender pay and pension gap in the EU: state of play, challenges and the way forward, and developing guidelines for the better evaluation and fairer remuneration of work in female-dominated sectors (debate)

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9 Mar

2026

SL Speech

Gender pay and pension gap in the EU: state of play, challenges and the way forward, and developing guidelines for the better evaluation and fairer remuneration of work in female-dominated sectors (debate)

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11 Feb

2026

SL Speech

Developing a new EU anti-poverty strategy (debate)

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Madam President! Historically, politics have been a tool of social division, often by race or religion, always following the same logic: We are against them, rich or poor, we are against you. Today, the unimaginably rich in many places dictate state, even world politics. You know, Musk-Trump, for example. The motive is clear: Protecting your own interests and money at your expense. This is why thi…

11 Feb

2026

EN Speech

Rule of law, fundamental rights and misuse of EU funds in Slovakia: the need for an EU response (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, it's no secret that we are watching a dangerous contagion spread across Europe – from Orbán in Hungary to Janša in Slovenia, from the shadows of PiS in Poland to Fico in Slovakia. Fico's style is not just authoritarian, it is deeply paranoid. As we see elsewhere, illiberal politics turns opponents into traitors and critics into enemies. This paranoia has a purpose: if …

11 Feb

2026

SL Speech

State violence in Minneapolis and the rule of law in the United States (topical debate)

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Madam President! Rations, gunshots, murders, fear, division into ours and the problem. With a promise: We will restore order, dear ones, the problem will be removed. So, first you define a group of people as a problem, and then an apparatus that proves this problem every day, even when it is not. It's not security, it's control, it's power. This is a method that does not solve problems because it …

10 Feb

2026

SL Speech

Presentation of the action plan against cyberbullying (debate)

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22 Jan

2026

SL Speech

A new action plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights (debate)

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Madam President! We have been talking about the green and digital transitions in Europe for years. Undoubtedly important, but the transition that many feel the most today is the one from universal security to insecurity. Despite high levels of employment, we still have parents who are unable to pay their bills, young people without the opportunity to have their own roof over their heads, workers w…

21 Jan

2026

EN Speech

Attempted takeover of Lithuania’s public broadcaster and the threat to democracy in Lithuania (debate)

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Mr President, the Baltic states have been a beacon of media freedom since their independence, rising from the shadows of repression to build some of the most resilient democracies in Europe. But today, that legacy is under threat in Lithuania. The governing coalition is moving with alarming speed to dismantle the independence of the national broadcaster. They are not 'reforming' – they are attempt…

21 Jan

2026

EN Speech

European Council meeting (joint debate)

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Mr President, colleagues, Commissioner, Council, as Mark Carney said yesterday, the power of the less powerful begins with honesty. So, let's be honest: Donald Trump will not change. Waiting him out is not a policy, even less a strategy. It is cowardice. All the flattery, all the appeasement brought exactly nothing except a spectacular failure. First, the EU Commission President accepted humiliati…

18 Dec

2025

EN Speech

European Democracy Shield – very large online platform algorithms, foreign interference and the spread of disinformation (debate)

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Mr President, 'whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government' was once said in a country that now seems to prove the opposite. Europe is squeezed from the revisionist east by trying to subvert democracy from within, while across the Atlantic we hear that our laws are anti‑democratic and anti‑freedom. Ironically, the one trying to lecture us on genuine democra…

17 Dec

2025

SL Speech

The urgent need to combat discrimination in the EU through the horizontal anti-discrimination directive (topical debate)

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Mr. President! More than 15 years of delay, inequality and the debt the European Union owes to its people. Such a long blockade of the horizontal directive is not a technical stalemate, it is a first-rate political absurdity and, in essence, a conscious decision that creates inequality as a legal fact. Millions of people across Europe remain unprotected in access to housing, education, goods, serv…