What Katrin spoke about.

10

Sep

2025

DE Speech

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

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I would like to thank the rapporteur for the good cooperation and cooperation – I believe that this should also be mentioned – and that we are now entering the negotiations in a well-closed manner. I once worked in my previous life as a call centre employee for a larger company in Hanover – the one with the three letters; I do not advertise – an…

9

Sep

2025

DE Speech

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Cohesion policy (joint debate)

Madam President, dear Commission! Climate change is not a phase, rabbit. That's not something you've come up with, that just fits, and then infantile behavior kicks in, and I close my eyes, and climate change doesn't even exist. At the beginning of the week, yesterday, we talked about the areas that are drying up, where there are forest fires, where people are losing their homes; And then it says,…

7

Jul

2025

DE Speech

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From institution to inclusion: an EU action plan for deinstitutionalisation, family- and community-based care (debate)

Mr President! I said to myself some time ago: Human rights are not the hot shit in this House or even in the European Union. If I look at the speeches here and listen to them, this is all very well meant, but then the next moment Ableism kicks coldly again. That's wording of helping, doing good, the poor, somehow we have to... I, too, always hear criticism of these institutions and workshops: Wher…

17

Jun

2025

DE Speech

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The Commission’s 2024 Rule of Law report (debate)

Madam President, Hurrah, we have a paper, but we no longer have an anti-discrimination directive. Hey, it's an advantage. I am referring here to my colleague Marc Angel. People with disabilities are 100 million people in the European Union. And when it comes to the rule of law - and we visited the UN last week with the LIBE, EMPL and PETI committees - we are counting on ourselves, on the EU, on hu…

5

May

2025

DE Speech

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Order of business

2

Apr

2025

DE Speech

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Delivering on the EU Roma Strategy and the fight against discrimination in the EU (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! We are discussing a strategy and, in the same breath, we are watching relatively tacitly as the Anti-Discrimination Directive is wiped off the table. It was a long, hard fight. It is about fighting discrimination against people with disabilities, against people who belong to the Romani culture, against the population, against the queer community. We have been ta…

2

Apr

2025

DE Speech

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Topical debate (Rule 169) - Social Europe: making life affordable, protecting jobs, wages and health for all

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! I listened very carefully yesterday to Mrs von der Leyen's speech, and Mrs Bischoff, you said yes, competitiveness – Competitiveness – I have been hearing this for several months, but then for whom? As long as we have a healthy, participatory society, if people don't feel taken with them, can't be there, are afraid of the future and not because something comes f…

11

Mar

2025

DE Speech

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The need for EU support towards a just transition and reconstruction in Syria (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, dear Council! Just because one has chased a dictator from the court does not mean that a complete dictatorship has disappeared; Countries that have experienced dictatorships know this. Assad is gone, but the dictatorship has remained. The fear is still there, the mistrust below the people is still there. Al-Sharaa is the new president – I would say he is the point of…

19

Dec

2024

DE Speech

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Recommendation to the Council on the EU priorities for the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women - EU priorities for the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (joint debate - EU priorities for the upcoming session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women)

Mr President! This morning, Commissioner Lahbib, we had the debate on Disability strategy, and here I would like to use the room again to draw attention to the situation of disabled girls and women. And we are not only talking about the girls and women in wheelchairs, but also those with learning difficulties. Every second woman with a disability is affected by violence, and that can happen within…

19

Dec

2024

DE Speech

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Need to update the European strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities (debate)

Madam President, Dear Commissioner, welcome to our House and to this important issue, I am very pleased. First of all, I have some bad news for all of us: There is no European Member State that has implemented the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as it should. We all failed! We are all in the same boat. The good news: We can do better. We can do better with the development …

17

Dec

2024

DE Speech

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Toppling of the Syrian regime, its geopolitical implications and the humanitarian situation in the region (debate)

Mr President! I throw a number into the room: 54. And I throw another number into the room: 48. 54 Years of the Assad Dictatorship: Father Assad and Bashar al-Assad, his son. Less than 48 hours after the fall of the Syrian population itself, without bloodshed, I would like to mention, it has not been possible to cry out immediately for deportations. I have followed this debate, I feel the same way…

27

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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Recent legislation targeting LGBTQI persons and the need for protecting the rule of law and a discrimination-free Union (debate)

Mr President! I believe I am the only woman in the progressive camp who is not lesbian, queer or anything else – and I do not feel threatened. That's crazy! And I find these words really painful so far. What do you take away from children of men when they say: ‘I am a lesbian, I am gay’? I notice in the schoolyard – as a boy – that the neighbor who is next to me, that I find him somehow sexy. And …

27

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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Rise of energy prices and fighting energy poverty (debate)

Madam President, We often have the floor here today. competitiveness – competitiveness – and that everyone is somehow ready for change. I come from Lower Saxony, I come from Großburgwedel, and Großburgwedel is not very far from Gorleben. We know what it means to have nuclear energy on your doorstep. What do we do with this shit? To those of you who are still advocating today that we must somehow r…

26

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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Urgent need to tackle the gender pay gap (debate)

13

Nov

2024

DE Speech

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The devastating floods in Spain, the urgent need to support the victims, to improve preparedness and to fight the climate crisis (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! After this very emotional debate, I would like to throw a number into the room: 100 million people with disabilities live in the European Union, and they are the last to be remembered and the first to be forgotten. People with disabilities, elderly people, people who are homeless, who are not immediately seen or who do not appear in rescue plans. And this is …

9

Oct

2024

DE Speech

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Ensuring sustainable, decent and affordable housing in Europe - encouraging investment, private property and public housing programmes (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! The fight against poverty is probably now on the Commission's agenda in this upcoming legislature, and this is very well heard. But we also have the long-term budget ahead of us, so we can decide what money will go into housing – social housing. As the European Union, we have said: Homelessness must end by 2030. It is very nice that we are dealing here with the …

24

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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La Hulpe declaration on the future of social Europe (debate)

Mr President! We have achieved a lot here as a team, and I see that we are sitting here closed in the front row. I am very happy, dear colleagues, we were really a megacool team. We have reached the minimum wage, the Climate Social Fund. We are now trying, in the next parliamentary term, to implement the poverty-resistant basic security as a legislative initiative and to protect people from povert…

23

Apr

2024

DE Speech

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European Disability Card and European Parking Card for persons with disabilities - European Disability Card and European Parking Card for persons with disabilities for third country nationals legally residing in a Member State (joint debate - Disability cards)

Mr President, Commissioner Helena Dalli, ladies and gentlemen! We have achieved a lot within the framework of this and we were a really cool team, I have to say that here at this point. This shows that we can work together very well beyond the political groups and borders. A European Severely Disabled Card – why do you really need it? What did we actually do? This is needed for compensating for di…

12

Mar

2024

DE Speech

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Council decision inviting Member States to ratify the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) of the International Labour Organization (debate)

Mr President! Violence can look different: There is verbal violence, there is indirect violence, there is of course rarely in public space, but sometimes also in a very public space, as happened to the Spanish footballers. It is accepted: ‘It's always been done that way’, ‘There's nothing there’; Let's talk about humor, Altherrenwitz. No, that's not funny! If there's an imbalance of no-more-up-eye…

27

Feb

2024

DE Speech

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Recommendation to the Council, the Commission and the EEAS on the situation in Syria (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner! Syria is on the agenda, and it is very, very important. We have multiple crises and wars and we need to talk about Syria, one of the largest states in the Middle East region. There is still war. People took to the streets for democracy, for freedom, for freedom of the press. What did they get? The bombs! They got flight, expulsion, even more torture, even more restri…

17

Jan

2024

DE Speech

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Addressing urgent skills shortages and finding the right talents to boost job creation (European Year of Skills) (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. A survey once found that people with a migrant background are more likely to believe in earning their money or taking up a job as a YouTube star later than they are to make it to a job via education. What is the reason? This is discrimination. It's the wrong address, it's the name, the migration history, the origin you bring. It's also sometimes like a person…

17

Jan

2024

DE Speech

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Quality jobs in a competitive future-oriented social market economy (topical debate)

Dear Minister, dear President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues! Quality jobs, quality jobs, what is it? Is it the IT professional, the auto mechanic? Or is it the woman who sits at the checkout and collects our purchase? What are professionals? By definition, skilled workers are people who have completed vocational training. This does not always have to be associated with a high school diploma.…

23

Nov

2023

DE Speech

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International day for the elimination of violence against women (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Yes means Yes, No means No, and we repeat this demand mantra-like every time for generations. For a similar, comparable demand, my mother took to the streets in the early 1970s. And we repeat it over and over again. I think we can say: Do not educate your daughters, but educate your sons. And Mr. Buschmann, to you: Your obstruction of this law, thi…

19

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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Commission proposal for a Council recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear spectators outside on the screens! I am very pleased that you are following the debate here. We visited Madrid with the Social Committee almost a year ago and looked at social enterprises with a focus on people with disabilities. And it has been shown, as the Commissioner rightly pointed out, that the social economy, the social economy and inclusive enterpr…

17

Oct

2023

DE Speech

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International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (debate)

Madam President, World Poverty Day is today. Fourteen days ago we talked about basic security here in this House. Oh, hurrah! Within a very short time, we are talking about poverty in the European Union. I am addressing our guests on the podium here, I am addressing those who may be sitting at home now and watching the debate – people affected by poverty. And I would like us to stop talking about …