What Katrin spoke about.

17 Sep

2026

DE 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! First applaud and then insult. You have to be able to do that first, according to our chancellor, Mr. Merz. The beneficiary debate in Germany has triggered a wave of outrage among many nursing doctors. And rightly so. Today in the European Parliament we are talking about a contingency plan for health and care workers. That the crisis is there – not new. This is a massive crisis. Our …

15 Sep

2026

DE Speech

Presentation of the Fair Labour Mobility Package (debate)

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Mr President! Which Europe do we want to be? Do we want to be a Europe, a European Union that welcomes Europeans and people beyond that? So far, an OECD study says: No. Are we really the hot shit in the European Union, are we attractive enough? We are talking about bureaucracy, but are we also talking about a welcoming culture in the European Union? What makes us so attractive, apart from bureaucr…

15 Sep

2026

DE Speech

Devastating heatwaves, wildfires and droughts in Europe: lessons from summer 2026 (debate)

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Madam President, How much evidence and evidence do we need? The facts have already hit the ground hard. We can do these Fridays Smile at me. We can condemn and imprison the climate glues. Whether the rule of law is judiciary, yes or no, that is left to the question. It remains – it is as it is. People lost their homes this summer, lost their homes. They died in their own homes. Older people, homel…

6 Jul

2026

DE Speech

Coordination of social security systems (debate)

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Mr President! We do not feel responsible for this: People with disabilities, people with care needs hear this very, very often when they apply for funds or support. If they move from A to B, i.e. from Member State A to Member State B, who actually takes care and who actually pays for it? When it comes to money, the issue of inclusion and human rights is once again very quiet. Just like that! This …

6 Jul

2026

DE Speech

Air passenger rights (debate)

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Madam President, Human rights may not always be the hot beep, but women's rights for consumers with disabilities are. Thank you very much, it was a long way. We still hear that people with disabilities not only complain about their wheelchair, which they sometimes get back from the plane scrapped here and there and get too few rights, but we also talk about people who are blind, deaf or with learn…

20 May

2026

DE Speech

Advancing towards a care society: addressing the gender care gap (debate)

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Mr President! Whether in childcare, care for the elderly, children with disabilities, it is still us, the women, who provide care. And no, the beautiful video on TikTok by Tradwives with several million followers – who are very well paid for it – cannot deceive us that this is not the reality. Millions of hours often unpaid and underpaid. On average, we women do 17 hours of unpaid care work per we…

20 May

2026

DE Speech

Recent proposals to fight poverty in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, Fighting child poverty with basic security: great. People with disabilities are working in precarious jobs – we find it dumb: great. Homelessness: I come from Hannover and commute Brussels-Hannover every week; and then we have the people who live on the street; We all don't like that. But do we really want to take money for it, do we want to change structures? No. Here we make a s…

28 Apr

2026

EN Speech

Situation of fundamental rights in the European Union in 2024 and 2025 (debate)

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Mr President, the life of disabled people is in danger. It is daily in danger. It's in danger for a disabled woman when she faces forced sterilisation, when she gets raped and she believes or is convinced that it's normal. Human rights are violated. Human rights are not for all in the European Union. Yeah, we have the Disability Strategy, but where is the money going to? As long as we support and …

11 Mar

2026

DE Speech

AccessibleEU and the strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities: state of play and the future of EU accessibility policy (debate)

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11 Mar

2026

DE Speech

Package travel and linked travel arrangements: make the protection of travellers more effective and simplify and clarify certain aspects (debate)

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10 Mar

2026

DE Speech

Housing crisis in the European Union with the aim of proposing solutions for decent, sustainable and affordable housing (debate)

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Madam President, We fought very hard – and thank you, Commissioner, for your commitment – for finally having homelessness, housing on the European agenda. We were expecting a lot and at the end of the day, Sorry to say - We have more or less an economic report, not a social report. When we talk about homelessness, when we talk about poverty - and here, Commissioner, the poverty strategy is also be…

9 Mar

2026

DE 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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12 Feb

2026

DE Question

Recommendation to the Council on EU priorities for the 70th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (debate)

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11 Feb

2026

DE Speech

Developing a new EU anti-poverty strategy (debate)

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Madam President, He who is poor is himself to blame, he has not paid attention in school, he has drunk his rent, has become homeless; No one in the European Union needs to be poor. This is the current narrative, the belief of many that it is self-inflicted. No, no! Poverty is often family-related. I live in the wrong street, I have a wrong name, because of discrimination I don't get the job I'm ap…

11 Feb

2026

DE Speech

International Day of Education, fighting inequalities in access to education (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, I had a conversation with Malak this weekend. Malak comes from Syria, and she had made it to Germany under difficult conditions in the case. And now you can expect a sad story here. But why do we have to tell these stories? Because people like Malak are not in parliament, or because the parents of Malak and women are not here in parliame…

10 Feb

2026

DE Speech

Situation in Northeast Syria, the violence against civilians and the need to maintain a sustainable ceasefire (debate)

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22 Jan

2026

DE Speech

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

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Madam Executive President of the Commission! We are talking about social justice again today – and we are doing it over and over again because it is right and important. Poverty alleviation – we will soon be presented with something from you – is only credible if we also put money in it. If we don't cut through the back door on the MFF. At the end of the day,…

20 Jan

2026

DE Speech

Air passenger rights (debate)

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Madam President, I can't hear the Mimimi of the big airline companies anymore. It is your job to ensure that we consumers, customers and citizens in the European Union come safely and safely from A to B. That's the job! It goes without saying that I sit next to my child, next to my mother, when I book a ticket. Who else do I want to sit next to? As a disabled person in a wheelchair, it goes withou…

20 Jan

2026

DE Speech

Tackling AI deepfakes and sexual exploitation on social media by making full use of the EU’s digital rules (debate)

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Madam President, The dignity of man is inviolable. This is a basic rule that we agreed upon after the Second World War. The fact that women whose rights are not respected are being humiliated, exploited, that it is a business model to do business with their bodies and earn money, that consumers, especially EU consumers, have to fight over and over again for protection and dignity, is nothing new. …

17 Dec

2025

DE Speech

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

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Mr President! Ladies and gentlemen, I would be delighted if we could stay on the topic and perhaps take such a step back and perhaps not only talk about ourselves, if you are not affected by discrimination, but really stay on the topic. It is about discrimination. If I can't get on the train because the assistant is not bookable, then I can't go to my family at Christmas because of the lack of acc…

16 Dec

2025

DE Speech

European Citizens’ Initiative ‘My voice, my choice: for safe and accessible abortion’ (debate)

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16 Dec

2025

DE Speech

Presentation of the European Affordable Housing Plan (continuation of debate)

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26 Nov

2025

DE Speech

EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024 (debate)

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23 Oct

2025

DE Speech

Combating violence against women and girls, including the exploitation of motherhood (debate)

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Madam President, When I was whistled for the first time in my life on the open road, I was eleven and the men were around 30. What's going on in a man whistling after an 11-year-old girl on the open street? I think it's hacking! When I was told as a student: You're a girl, you can't do math – that was my old white math teacher. Violence, humiliation, that does not happen in the open street – and t…

21 Oct

2025

DE Speech

Commission Work Programme 2026 (debate)

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Mr President! Mrs von der Leyen, I listened very carefully to your speech on the presentation of the programme. You always mention the concept of competitiveness and defence. If Europe, the European Union, wants to be defence- and competitive, we need to be visible – and a great many citizens are listening here. What does this Europe bring me? Why am I here, and what good is the European Union to …