Speeches

Madam President, We are slowly approaching the end of the debate, and it is very, very difficult for me to bear how much nonsense, dear women, we have actually had to listen to ourselves here for about an hour. We are really being told everything again. We have no idea how we define gender – our gender. We do not know what violence, assault, verbal violence, psychological violence, psychological violence or even ‘yes, you have no idea’ what that means and we cannot talk about it. This, I think, shows how important this discussion is, how important this resolution, this decision for tomorrow is, that it is also voted accordingly. No means no. There is no ambiguity. Waltraud Schoppe was a very well-known woman in 1983, the first Green member of the Bundestag to speak in the Bundestag on the subject of rape in marriage. She was laughed at. In 1997, rape in marriage was criminalized in Germany. I think for many men today it is still a nonsense that there is such a thing in their worldview. Violence does not begin with slaps. Violence ends with death, with femicide. That too is part of the truth. I am pleased to have strong women here in the room, that tomorrow we will also vote together, in solidarity with our male colleagues at our side, which I would also like to mention, dear colleagues.

Mr President! If I had been told 15 years ago that we were going to get the European minimum wage, I would have said: No way! Never! If I had been told 15 years ago, when the banking and financial crisis hit us, that we will sit here today and instead of saving we will invest, we will invest in social standards and we will try to help the poor in the European Union, and not only with money, but also try to get them structurally out of poverty, I would have said: Never! Fifteen years later, today I can say: Hurrah, we did it! Of course, there's still room for improvement. It is not yet what we imagine as greens, what is needed to help the single parent on the outskirts of Bucharest or the carer who travels in Brittany with her car to visit patients out of mobility poverty or structural poverty. We can do that today. Today is a first step with the Social Climate Fund. I would like to thank all those who have participated. It is a first step for more and I will continue to advocate for it as a social politician.

Mr President, dear Helena, dear colleagues, dear citizens at the top of the podium! History is made, it's moving forward! And today we are moving forward with ending discrimination. Women are often told: Well, you're imagining that with discrimination. Where does it say that a man deserves more than a woman? Prove it to me. And we end that today, that as a woman with different backgrounds you have to come into the burden of proof. No, we're turning this around today: The company, the other side, needs to prove how much men and women earn in their company. And no, the women did not negotiate badly. It has so far been simply wage discrimination, which we are talking about here, and no imagination or incompetence in negotiations. It's moving forward. What does Europe do for me? We're ending the pay gap today. This is what we are doing today for women in the European Union.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. After 15 years, I think it's also good with We sit it out. We hope nothing happens. When I entered the European Parliament, I was not the first, but the only woman with a disability. Now we are three women with disabilities in the whole Parliament, six disabled people, six disabled MPs in the whole Parliament of 705 MPs. Why is that so? Because access to polling stations for listing, to party organizations is not barrier-free, even if party organizations on the ground want it so much. The rooms are not barrier-free. I'm not talking about wheelchair access. Accessibility is often confused with wheelchair access. Accessibility is the full program! I hope that you will soon – and then give the answer to my colleague Mrs Kuhnke, who asked: ‘What is the plan?’ – we are strongly committed to ensuring that next time, in the next parliamentary term, 50% of Parliament is made up of people with disabilities. That would be at least a plan. Accessible Parliament – that would be my vision. I hope we finally come to the implementation of the Anti-Discrimination Directive.

Mr President, since weeks, thousands of Israelis have been demonstrating against the judicial reforms. The new Netanyahu government plan is not a judicial reform: it’s a revolution. A revolution in a very bad, dangerous direction. And what’s the plan? It seeks full power of the appointment of the nine-member committee that selects the judges of the Supreme Court. It wants to give the Knesset the ability to override court decisions by a simple majority, give ministers authority to appoint legal advisers in the ministry as opposed to the Attorney General doing so. Human rights are in danger. Women’s rights are in danger. Rights of minorities will be in danger. I am very worried about the rights of the citizens in Israel and the neighbour states it has consequences for. We are consequently on the side of the democrats in Israel. We are solidary with the demonstrators on the streets in Israel. We are the partners of Israel and not of a crude group of old grey, conservative fascist men.

Mr President, it’s great to see that we women take the room, even if we are running out of time, because it’s so necessary and important, because ‘women who don’t ask for anything are taken at their word: they don’t get anything.’ Who said it? You can write an email. It was an important woman. One of the priority themes of the UN Commission on the Status of Woman is gender equality in a digital age. But when we ask ourselves how to empower women in the digital world, we first need to make sure that the internet is a safe place and accessible for us. Online harassment, hate speech, trolling, disinformation, image—based sexual abuse is a daily reality for women and girls, and it prevents them from fully participating in politics and civic action. A recent study showed how disinformation and online abuse hinder women of colour to run as political candidates. So searches for prominent women and politics on Instagram and TikTok ahead of the 2020 mid—terms produced abusive hashtags. As European Parliament, we need to be strong and act across national lines on this topic, also at a global level, because women who don’t ask for anything are taken at their word: they don’t get anything!

Mr President, dear colleagues here in the room, I just checked the numbers. When it comes to women with disabilities and how they are affected by gender—based violence, we are talking about 26.1% of women with disabilities living in the European Union. And the numbers are not really clear because we don’t have the numbers and that is a problem. When you listen to women with disabilities about their sexual lives, you have women, they tell you: ‘Yeah, he in my institution or in my family, he came to me in my bed and we had something like sex together.’ And in the end it came out: ‘He raped me.’ They don’t have a name for it. They are not educated and they don’t know or they don’t have the info and the empowerment of ‘what happened to me, that was violence’. Women and girls with disabilities are more affected than we know. Here I would like to see that come to an end in our political fight for women’s rights and for girls’ rights.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, We are allegedly speaking – yes, this must not become a political issue. But let's be honest: Of course it is a politics. We are talking here about a Mr Erdoğan, a Bashar al-Assad and a Mr Putin, who have held their hands over Turkey, Syria and Kurdish Syria for a very long time. Now the call is loud: We need to stop the EU sanctions. This is not, I would like to explain, the same as with the US sanctions, but: The EU sanctions sanction people-centered, i.e. Assad's people. The population has nothing to do with it. The first thing that was said – after the earthquake, the voice was very loud: We need to stop sanctions. And the people said: Please don't! And if you send help – when they arrive in Erbil in northern Syria, the people in Idlib are still waiting for it – then they must not flow into Assad’s pocket or into any radical, undemocratic – you can choose it – pockets. So we have to look very closely, Commissioner, where EU funds are going. That's very, very important, otherwise it catches the wrong ones.

Mr President, dear Commission, I’m searching for Mr Borrell. Where are you when it comes to Syria? I’m looking for you because I have questions when it comes to Syria. Syria is a bleeding country and I was there a couple of weeks ago with some colleagues, and we visited different places in north—east Syria. And we went, or I went, to the al-Hol camp, where thousands of Daesh fighters, some of them with European citizenship – by the way, we have to take them back, it’s our responsibility – are imprisoned. And now Turkey is bombing north—east Syria. It is bombing or attacking al-Hol. We fought against terrorism, Kurds fought against terrorism, and now that region is in danger. We all are in danger. So stop bombing, Mr Erdoğan, north—east Syria, because Syria now is not safe. And if Syria is not safe, we are not safe.

Madam President, dear ladies and gentlemen, dear Helena, dear colleagues, thank you for that well—written report on equal rights of persons with disabilities. A famous activist in Germany – he’s a wheelchair user – said in a statement: disabled persons are the last to be mentioned and the first to be forgotten. The situation for disabled persons in the EU is still unjust and almost all Member States ignoring the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. They have ratified it in different ways, here and there. Our role is to push EU legislation so that Member States finally implement our rights. The freedom of movement for persons with disabilities must be guaranteed. This is why we urgently need an EU disability card here. I still have a German one. I can’t use it as an EU citizen in France or in Belgium when I take the bus to Parliament. But the transport must be accessible. Otherwise, the card is useless for me and for us persons with disabilities. We also need equal opportunities for persons with disabilities in the labour market. Stop funding institutions. Therefore, here we call as well on the Commission to review the Employment Equality Directive, to align it with the CRPD and push inclusive employment. I have many things to add. But let me say something. Christmas is knocking on our door and there are so many TV shows in our Member States, they are doing something good for us, spending money, millions and millions. Can we stop that business, please? We want to have human rights, equal rights, and no charity.

Madam President, colleagues, could you wait and sit down for a moment? It’s on human rights, not corruption. Thanks for listening. On 3 December, we celebrated International Disability Day. On 6 December, a few colleagues, me and EDF, organised an event on that and the host of that event, Ms Nicholsonová and her team applied for an accessible room for that event because it was about persons with disabilities, and persons with disabilities were invited. What we got was a room that was not accessible for our wheelchair-using guests. Even when I applied for my voting machine, it’s always a fight to get it, and two times colleagues had to vote instead of me – that’s against the law, by the way. I apply now – no, I don’t call the Commission, I call for the Secretariat – that maybe next year and 2024, and maybe for the next generation, it’s possible to have an accessible Parliament in Strasbourg and in Brussels.

Madam President, I would like to draw attention today to the situation of girls and women with disabilities. They are a group that is not visible – perhaps a shadow group in the European Union. In Germany it is like this: One in two women/girls are victims of violence – girls with disabilities, women with disabilities. And there we are talking about a very diverse form of violence; It's about psychological violence, physical violence, sexualized violence. And often these women, the girls, are not believed. Statements are often: Be glad someone touches you at all. Do you want to break up with your husband? Where are you going? If you tell the women and girls with disabilities from the beginning in special worlds, in special institutions, in the family: You are nothing, you can't do anything, you can be grateful that someone is marrying you, that you are being cared for – and that is the original idea that sits so deeply in this society in the European Union: that of care. What we need is a phasing out of facilities for people with disabilities. We need a clear plan for the protection of women and girls with disabilities: Education, accessibility, barrier-free access for medical practices, police. Police and facilities must be trained to believe women and girls with disabilities.

Mr President, COVID isn’t over. COVID, Corona is here in the room, it is outside, it’s in the European Union. I am standing here as an MEP, but I’m standing here for Milena Hermisson, a German, a young woman who is sitting in the dark. She can’t go outside. She’s sitting in the dark because she’s sick. Or Faraz Fallahi, he’s sitting in the dark, separated from family because he can’t bear it anymore being around people. Corona is not a flu. Corona is not a grippe, as you are affecting. On Monday, the beer tents at the Octoberfest closed in Munich – one of the hugest parties in in the world. People want to join because they are free. They want to join. It’s my freedom. But please be honest, the freedom of the few must be the freedom of me as well – otherwise, we are not free in the European Union. The Corona preventative measures proposed by the Commission in April were necessary to prepare Europe for new outbreaks this winter and to prevent the spread of the virus. We are talking about a virus. But there is a clear need to look beyond COVID—19, learn from the hard—learned lessons the world has thrown at us over the past two years and develop long—term strategies – COVID isn’t over – to become crisis-proof for future pandemics. My question, and the question of all the people with ME/CFS, long COVID, is what about the children when we are talking about education for all? How will the Commission develop a coordinated strategy for the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines across the whole value chain? How will the health emergency preparedness and response authority work? How will the Commission ensure the Member States successfully integrate COVID-19? What is the strategy for the future? Because COVID isn’t over. Today we call it COVID, when the next day we call it Omicron, Delta, Alpha, Beta, Omicron – it has a name. We are in a period of pandemic and we need answers from a social perspective, from the labour perspective and from the perspective of our citizens in the European Union. Thank you for your answers.

Mr President, Commissioners, welcome guests up there on the podium! First, as I said, the good news: There is light at the end of the tunnel. There should be peace talks, which will probably take place on 8 October and which, I hope, will be the start of a dialogue at the end of which there will be a sustainable peace in the country for the benefit of all citizens. Although, of course, the responsibility for the process and the success lies in the hands of our African partners, it remains right and important to keep an eye on the situation in Ethiopia, especially in those moments when European attention is primarily focused on the Union itself and on another war in the east of the continent. This resolution, of course, takes up many of the points already raised in the previous resolutions. Of course, the focus on the well-being of children remains more than right. For they are to a great extent the victims and victims. The fact remains that this war is being waged in the media in order to gain sovereignty over the developments. Precisely for this reason, it is good that in the end we can look at a balanced text that adequately addresses and condemns all parties to this war. Recruiting children as soldiers is and will remain a war crime. War crimes against women and children as meanwhile common means are and remain despicable. Supporting emergency rehabilitation centres for women and children, including children born after rape, is the least that Europe has to do. The serious cases of gender-based violence committed by all warring parties must be fully clarified. This is another reason why the mandate of the UN Commission must be extended by human rights experts, without any time or geographical limitation. Moreover, practice shows that not only can aid be suspended, but the Commission needs to reconsider its limit on budget support in order to continue to allow for the implementation of development projects outside the conflict zone. It also depends on the success of a sustainable peace in the country and in the region, a peace that we all so fervently desire.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all those involved and, above all, to the rapporteur for the work that has been taken into account in this extensive report. As parliamentarians, we can look here at a rather progressive text that adds a number of important aspects to and significantly improves the Council's position. Even with regard to geopolitical dynamics, it is important that first and foremost the actors in the region are responsible for all initiatives. With a view to peace and security and enhanced cooperation with the European and African Union, it is important to understand the concept of human security as the basis of any initiative. Local approaches must be taken into account when building structures and institutions. The climate crisis is understood as a risk multiplier and is strategically anchored. Our partnership engagement through the Global Gateway initiative also needs new forms of responsiveness. Complaint mechanisms for EU infringements need to become a new standard – proactive. I would like to thank the rapporteur and colleagues for the good cooperation, we hope for the best for the Horn of Africa.

Madam President, Many thanks, dear colleagues, for these warm, appreciative and corrective words. The future will hopefully become barrier-free, because the present is not. It is still the case that disabled people have to justify themselves when they claim their rights. “What else do you want?” can be heard in parliaments, in public spaces. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is not a wish list, it is a human right. When it comes to inclusion, we're not talking about a fun children's birthday party, where everyone comes together in a colorful and diverse way. diversity is not something funny, something like ‘Oh, I also have a gay friend, but otherwise I'm not really interested in the rights of queer people.’ And: “Yes, I used to work in an institution, and the people with disabilities were so inspiring. I thought it was great.” This is called ableism, colleagues. If we in the European Union stand up against racism, against anti-Semitism, then we must also stand up against Ableism, anti-disabled people. The future is accessible, the present not. I hope that if we want to act concretely, we will also create an accessibility agency here. It has to be visible, our rights have to be made visible, and it has to be done by investing coal – clearly. Otherwise, it's lip service. The Commission launched an infringement procedure against almost all European Member States in the summer, when we were almost all on leave, for failing to report on the state of accessibility. Well, I can say nasty: Where nothing is implemented, nothing can be reported. It is a shame that it is still the case that the Anti-Discrimination Directive, the fifth, is still blocked in the Council. What lasts a long time will finally be bad, believe perhaps one or the other. Show me how important this AccessibleEU Centre It's all the way to an agency, and that's what we're all going to fight for together.

Madam President, the future is accessible because the present is not. Dear President, dear Mr Commissioner Breton – and I’m looking for Mr Breton as he is the Commissioner responsible because it’s an IMCO file – but I’m very happy to have you here, dear Helena. You are our ally when it comes to the rights of persons with disabilities. But it is, of course, not only on your shoulders the whole huge topic when it comes to accessibility. And dear colleagues, of course the outcome of our negotiation is a great success. For this, I would like to thank all those who have been so committed and active in bringing this own—initiative report to reality, especially to our shadows, my shadow colleagues from all the different groups. In recent years, the EU has approved several laws and technical standards, setting up a new ecosystem for accessibility such as the European Accessibility Act, the Web Accessibility Directive, directives on audiovisual media services, electronic communication and technical specifications for railway stations and vehicles. Moreover, when allocating the EU funds and in public procurement, accessibility requirements have to be taken into account. Nevertheless, the implementation of this crucial set of laws at national level has not yet been satisfactory. This is mostly due to the lack of qualified accessibility experts at national level, both in public administration and among economic operators who would be able to implement highly technical accessibility provisions contained in legislation, but also in standards. We would like to concretise these and other tasks in an AccessibleEU Centre. Without clear guidelines, inclusion remains arbitrary. The aim is therefore to harmonise the different ideas of inclusion in Europe and the Member States and to harmonise the different speeds in the implementation of existing legislation through organised knowledge-transfer. We need horizontal training programmes to increase expertise in accessibility. We also need strengthened coordination and cooperation frameworks between all acting levels and relevant stakeholders, which will permanently and sustainably ensure accessibility in all areas for persons with disabilities. The EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030 envisaged exactly such a centre, which is what we are now trying to launch with the central flagship initiative. However, the centre needs a few essential basic prerequisites for this. It will only give added value if the centre will be structured in order to guarantee constant and targeted support to the Member States for implementing, monitoring and enforcing accessibility legislation, as well as to assist the Commission in updating and developing accessibility laws. For this, adequate resources are needed, both in terms of personnel and finance. The same then applies to the respect of centres in the Member States which also need to be established. The AccessibleEU Centre should consist of a lean structure composed of a secretariat, a forum and a number of subgroups of experts – ‘hear nothing about us without us’. It should become the hub for the collection and transfer of knowledge on accessibility and inclusion. This exchange must involve, as I said, persons with disabilities at all levels. Our direct involvement and the perspective of organisation, representing persons with disabilities should influence policy recommendation, actions and standardisation process through the centre. Again, thanks to all my colleagues. I listen now to your speeches and I’m looking forward to fruitful cooperation with you, Helena Dalli, and, of course, Mr Commissioner Breton.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear rapporteurs, dear shadow rapporteurs! Thank you very much for this report. I have heard of many groups affected by discrimination. I want to focus on people with disabilities. I am very pleased, Commissioner, that you are here today. We talked about LGBTIQ – queer hostility – we talked about racism, we talked about antigypsyism. Today I want to talk to you about Ableism – anti-disability. It takes place everywhere in the European Union. This means I don't have barrier-free access to the train, I can't get on the train. I may be a member of the European Union, but I cannot travel in the same way as non-disabled people. As a woman with a disability, as a girl with a disability, I am still being forcibly sterilized if certain institutions like it. There are forced abortions, my rights are severely curtailed. The future is accessible – I hope that the future will be accessible. The present is not accessible to people with disabilities and they have no human rights. I know I am just extending – please add this one point. In April 2021, four people were stabbed to death in a facility in Berlin. People with disabilities were murdered. Killed! And at the end of the day they reported and said they were redeemed. If this idea that disabled people, people with diseases, must be redeemed, then we are still far from implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and unfortunately still find ourselves in a very dismissive society. And I hope that you are our partner for this fight against Ableism.

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, the social economy provides innovative solutions in education, health care, energy transition, housing and the delivery of social services. It can also be a pioneer in local green deals by creating alliances in territories involving citizens and enterprises in the climate transition. We call for better access to funding for social economy entities, in particular those run by women, as well as skills development to facilitate youth and under—represented groups to engage in the social economy. Improvements to the enabling environment are urgently needed to allow social economy entities to operate effectively across Europe, particularly through a common EU—level definition. We call for a calendar of actions for the implementation, for social conditionality for accessing public contracts and to enable partnerships and improve access for social economy entities. We call on the Council to come up with a Union—level definition of the social economy, and we call for the establishment of a statute for a European association in line with prior EP resolutions, education on opportunities and social economy for youth and, as we said, under—represented groups. This dossier could have been – it’s a personal comment – more ambitious, more future orientated than proposed. We as Greens very much regret that it is not. But I am looking forward to improving the social economy sector with you, dear colleagues, and the Commission, in the European Union.

Mr President! Social justice is the putty that holds the EU, our Europe, together. If this putty melts, then we have a democratic problem in Europe, in the EU. When we talk about social justice, that is a very, very big word, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Minister, Mr Commissioner, Mr President, that is a big word. Let's talk about people who fall into poverty. A year ago, many EU Member States committed themselves to social Europe in Porto. The European Pillar Action Plan sets out concrete measures and targets for 2030, such as reducing the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion – 15 million fewer people. 15 million! However, I do not see how we achieve these goals in the way the Member States negotiate with each other. Whether in the negotiations on Social climate fund, minimum wage or the ever-failing coordination of social security systems, file 883: When it comes to concrete measures, Member States are reluctant. And again and again we fail at this social Europe, although we need exactly that in order to stick together. The next initiative on basic security: minimum income – must not be diluted again. We need a strong Europe – for our children, for our grandchildren, for all of us and for democracy.

Madam President, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, dear Commissioner, finally, for the very first time, we do have a Social Climate Fund. Finally, for the very first time, we in the EU are not only talking about poverty, we are acting against poverty – energy and mobility poverty. As Greens, we always said that the Green Transition must also be just and should not increase inequalities. Taking part of this transition should not be a matter of income. When we know that the transition will not happen by night and not everybody has a means to install a new solar panel on their roofs and – hooray! – we solve the problem. That is why we need this new Social Climate Fund to help those who are most in need and provide structural change for them. As the scope of the new Social Climate Fund is limited, we Greens want to focus it on the most vulnerable groups: people in poverty, households, transport users and small entrepreneurs like the single mum in Hungary who cannot pay her energy bills anymore, the family in the countryside that does not have public transport available to reach the city and is now struggling with the gas prices. These problems are already reality. In the long term we do not want to invest in fossil fuels, but in projects that will help both in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and help households to save energy, switch to green energies and build local transport solutions. A last saying in German, because I followed the debate here and there about the whole change in climate, in Germany, we say: Wer nicht mit der Zeit geht, der geht mit der Zeit.

Mr President, when the war started in Ukraine, my first thought was: what happens to the 2.7 million people with disabilities in that war? What does war mean from the perspective of a child with disabilities? In Ukraine, 82 000 children live with disabilities. It might be more. When your parents are afraid and you cannot flee, what does it mean to you? When you are a wheelchair user, how is it possible for you to go down in a bomb cellar, with your parents or not? How do you know that’s an alarm when you can’t hear the sirens and your parents aren’t there? I contacted a disability NGO in Kyiv. I asked him, ‘What do you need?’ Answer: ‘Everything, but the most is attention. No one cares about us, about persons and children with disabilities. There’s no access to transport. There is no access to information, no access to accessible shelters. And how do we know how accessible the places are where the families with disabled children need to go? Is there an accessible shelter in Poland? Is there an interpreter for deaf people? For me as a deaf person? I don’t know. So I stay in Kyiv nevertheless, if the bombs are there or not.’ When we want to support NGOs, structures and support children with disabilities, we must be sure that the money goes into an accessible direction. It must be used for accessibility. We have to offer accessible healthcare, accessible shelters, accessible education, personal assistance, interpreters inside the European Union and our Member States. I call on the Commission – you – and Member States to take the UNCRPD Article 7 into account, where it’s written ‘[i]n all actions concerning children with disabilities, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration’.

Mr President, times are changing and new emerging challenges, such as digitalisation and climate change, are highly affecting the way we work. On top of this, the pandemic, as not only a general health crisis but also an occupational health issue, has shed light on old and new challenges. Some economic sectors have been major vectors for the spread of COVID-19. It’s unacceptable that workers remain exposed to risks that put their health and even their lives in danger. Prevention to secure safety and health at work is key. That is why I support the ‘vision zero’ approach to work-related accidents and diseases presented by the Commission last year. Unfortunately, the Commission failed to propose appropriate measures and, as a result, its proposal lacks ambition. This report, however, is ambitious, which is why our group is happy to support it. The report calls for legislation that is more stringent towards the so-called ‘old risks’, such as exposure to hazardous substances like asbestos, for instance. The report also identifies fields in which we urgently need new legislation to address the growing cases of stress, burnout and other problems. Therefore, we call on the Commission to legislate on telework, the right to disconnect and psychosocial risks, and to produce clear guidelines for Member States and employers on the protection of persons with disabilities at work. Finally, yet importantly, we call on the Commission to look into the potential risks due to climate change in occupational settings. Only when doing so, can we adapt our labour markets to the needs of these challenging times.

Mr President, dear colleagues, in front of you stands a proud Member of the Parliament. Thanks to the persistency of this Parliament, we achieved a big step forward in the protection of workers from occupational exposure to carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxins. The biggest step forward entails the intention of the aforementioned directive with reprotoxic substances that adversely affect the ability of men and women to reproduce, and pose a threat to fertility. Protection against exposure to these substances is now legally covered. This is important for almost two million workers across the EU prevailing in sectors varying from agriculture and care, to petrochemicals and maintenance services. This update also provides more and better training for care workers on the potential hazardous impact of exposure to hazardous medicinal products. This is highly important for the millions of carers handling these products, such as oncology nurses. They put their own health in danger for saving the lives of others, whereas there are ways to protect them. But the work is not done yet. As Greens, we are looking forward to keep on seeking better protection. We look forward to future updates – 25 additional substances are still to be included and we need to establish a risk-based methodology to set exposure limits. We cannot allow that even one single worker gets sick or even dies due to a lack of protection. We need to care for those who care for us.

Mr President, thank you first of all, dear Mr Benifei, and thank the shadows for a cooperative atmosphere during the process and negotiation. A high number of toys on the market are unsafe and can harm children, and this is unacceptable for us as Greens/EFA. This is why we are asking for an ambitious revision of the Toy Safety Directive that should guarantee that our kids are safe when playing with their toys. Mr Beneifei’s initiative report will give some good guidance for that revision. As Greens, we are happy to see the amendments were accepted in the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), such as adaptive toys. We stress the need to develop ambitious standards for adaptive toys that allow children with disabilities to enjoy and interact with toys they may not be able to otherwise. Second one, going beyond children’s age limit for chemical toxicity, specific limit values for any chemicals and toys can be set. However, these limit values only apply to toys for children under the age of 36 months and toys indeed intended to be put in the mouth. Yet chemical toxicity does not vanish when a child reaches the age of 36 months. Smart toys are very important. So far the directive does not cover internet-connected toys. We have therefore highlighted new vulnerabilities and risk posed by connected toys in terms of childrens’ safety, security, privacy and mental health. Further gains are improving data collection, ambitious standards, the prohibition of CMR chemicals should have no derogation detecting unsafe toys, online sales of toys and addressing grey zones. Thank you for your support tomorrow during that vote.