What Saskia spoke about.

9 May

2023

FR Speech

Discharge 2021 (continuation of debate)

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– Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, once again this year the LIBE Committee delivered opinions for the various bodies working in the field of justice and home affairs. Agencies that are examined in the context of the discharge budget exercise perform key tasks in different areas such as security, migration, protection of fundamental rights. These areas obviously have significant impacts on th…

30 Mar

2023

FR Speech

2022 Rule of Law Report - The rule of law situation in the European Union - Rule of law in Greece - Rule of law in Spain - Rule of law in Malta (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it took years before our Assembly’s warnings of abuses of the rule of law in countries such as Hungary and Poland led to a European response. These years have allowed autocratic leaders to pass liberticidal laws, to get their hands on the media and the judiciary, and to misappropriate EU funds for private purposes. The abuses of the rule of law in other countrie…

29 Mar

2023

FR Speech

The Rights of children in Rainbow Families and same sex parents in particular in Italy (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, please, I would like it to be noted that Mr has made profoundly homophobic statements saying that it is dangerous for children to have homosexual parents. I want it to be recorded and the remark to be made to him, at the very least. It is unacceptable to say something like that in this House. This was already the case for a previous intervener. These points should be systematically r…

29 Mar

2023

FR Speech

The Rights of children in Rainbow Families and same sex parents in particular in Italy (debate)

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(start of the off-microphone intervention) ...and other large Italian cities prevented by the Meloni government from recognising the same-sex relationship between a couple and their children; national hemicycles in Italy and France, rejecting the European Commission's proposal on the mutual recognition of parenthood in Europe. The extreme right and the conservative right are destroying families an…

16 Mar

2023

FR Speech

Lack of actions taken by the Commission in the context of the duty of sincere and loyal cooperation (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 20 months ago the journalist collective Forbidden Stories revealed the illegal use of Pegasus spyware. Intrusive surveillance that has still claimed more than 50 000 victims worldwide, thousands of European citizens affected, at least four European governments involved, but also all European governments that are users of this type of software and then spying by …

15 Mar

2023

FR Speech

Combating organised crime in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, cybercrime, investment fraud, corruption, trafficking in human beings, organised crime affects a huge number of sectors, including environmental crime, which has risen to the third place of criminal activity in the world. Environmental crime is multifaceted. Trafficking in wildlife waste, illegal discharges of substances, and often has very long-term consequences for human health,…

15 Feb

2023

FR Speech

The erosion of the rule of law in Greece: the wiretapping scandal and media freedom (topical debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as long as the excesses of the Mitsotakis government demand it, as long as the European Commission does not take the necessary measures in the face of the too many excesses that you have just pinned on, Commissioner, as long as the conservative right wing of this Parliament prevents us from doing our work properly on the rule of law in Greece – including in o…

18 Jan

2023

FR Speech

Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate)

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Mr President, Seán Binder, Sarah Mardini, Cédric Herrou, Walid C, Anouk Van Gestel, Miriam Berg and so many others have been the subject of life-changing trials. Let us pay tribute to them today, because no, it is not normal to be prosecuted for showing solidarity and humanity. No, it is not normal to be prosecuted for having hosted or rescued migrants from a certain drowning, in the Mediterranean…

18 Jan

2023

FR Speech

Terrorist threats posed by far-right extremist networks defying the democratic constitutional order (debate)

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Madam President, the far right is still striking. An attempted coup in Germany; in France, a racist attack against representatives of the Kurdish community and racist violence against football fans; a soldier robbing an arms depot and training the police in a manhunt for several weeks in Belgium; attacks on migrants across Europe. All these manifestations of far-right terrorism are multiplying in …

14 Dec

2022

FR Speech

The Commission’s reports on the situation of journalists and the implications of the rule of law (debate)

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Mr President, Reporters Without Borders denounces the grim daily life of many journalists in Europe: physical attacks, liberticidal laws, SLAPPs, intimidation, censorship, lack of pluralism and independence, media concentration and surveillance. Press freedom is at risk in 22 out of 27 Member States, according to the European Commission. These threats to press freedom and its work lead to unsustai…

17 Oct

2022

FR Speech

FRONTEX's responsibility for fundamental rights violations at EU's external borders in light of the OLAF report (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, today, it is once again the work of NGOs, but also of investigative journalists, that we must welcome. While their activities are increasingly criminalised, without them, the OLAF report, which describes Frontex’s actions, would never have come into existence. And without them and the press, today’s debate would never have been possible or public. Frontex and its former…

5 Oct

2022

FR Speech

The Dutch childcare benefit scandal, institutional racism and algorithms (debate)

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Mr President, an algorithm – yes, an algorithm! – decided that social assistance for disadvantaged children should be withdrawn from precarious households and then reimbursed. This decision affects racialised people suspected of fraud on the basis of their skin colour – not white. This is not the Chinese social score system, it is the work of the Dutch government, which has been trying to stifle t…

5 Oct

2022

FR Speech

Outcome of the Commission’s review of the 15-point action plan on trade and sustainable development (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the revision of the sustainable development chapters in the trade treaties represents a considerable step, it must be acknowledged, towards more sustainable international trade, which involves civil society and Parliament more, and refers to implementation and monitoring mechanisms and sanctions for non-compliance with the provisions set out therein. But there are still…

12 Sep

2022

FR Speech

Surveillance and predator spyware systems in Greece (debate)

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Mr President, investigative journalists, opposition leaders, opposition members, our colleague MEP Nikos Androulakis... The list of people tapped by the conservative Greek government of Mr Mitsotakis using the Predator spyware is only getting longer. In the face of accusations of illegal wiretapping and conflicts of interest, the Greek government’s reactions – sorry – are a bad farce: there would …

22 Jun

2022

FR Speech

Future of EU-Africa trade relations (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, the relationship between the European Union and Africa must become a genuine partnership between equals. We in the European Parliament are ready, given the report that is on our table and that needs to be voted on. But are we ready, across Europe, for such a partnership? At the WTO, the EU continued to oppose the lifting of intellectual property rights on all pandemi…

9 Jun

2022

FR Speech

A new trade instrument to ban products made by forced labour (debate)

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Mr President, 25 million: this is the estimate of the number of people forced into forced labour worldwide, including in Brazil or Indonesia, where the European Union wants to conclude free trade agreements, or in China, with which the European Union wanted to conclude an investment agreement. Six to ten million are children: figures that are only increasing as a result of the pandemic and the war…

4 May

2022

FR Speech

Use of the Pegasus Software by EU Member States against individuals including MEPs and the violation of fundamental rights (topical debate)

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Mr President, I wonder whether we should not start our debates again, given that the Council is now honouring us with its presence and that we would have liked it to participate in all our debates, since many questions are addressed to it.…

4 May

2022

FR Speech

Use of the Pegasus Software by EU Member States against individuals including MEPs and the violation of fundamental rights (topical debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the revelations of spying on human rights defenders, journalists, political opponents and lawyers by the governments of Member States and third countries prompted this Parliament to open a committee of inquiry to shed light on the Pegasus case and other equivalent software. On the eve of the start of the work of our committee of inquiry, we learned that our inst…

3 May

2022

FR Speech

Strengthening Europol’s mandate: cooperation with private parties, processing of personal data, and support for research and innovation (debate)

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Mr President, is Europol on its way to becoming the European NSA: illegal analysis of personal data, development of facial recognition, exclusion of the European data protector, mass surveillance, registration of political activists, cooperation with third countries spying on us? Having come to legalise illegal practices, the reform of the European Police Cooperation Agency, presented as a technic…

5 Apr

2022

FR Speech

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

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Madam President, Commissioner, ‘in wars, children may not be targeted, but they are killed’. These are the chilling words of French resistanceist André Frossard recalling the cruelty of war, its violence, death and exile. For the youngest, more than a life in suspense, it is a stolen innocence, a life under construction that breaks and clashes violently with fear and the unknown – something no chi…

10 Mar

2022

FR Speech

The need for an ambitious EU Strategy for sustainable textiles (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, as you said, the social and environmental impacts of the textile sector are no longer to be demonstrated. I would add to the long list that you have already drawn up that workers are 60% at risk in this sector, in addition to being victims of forced labour, that women, the majority of the workforce in this sector, work under poor conditions for indecent pay – not to …

8 Mar

2022

FR Speech

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

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Mr President, almost two weeks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and already two million people on the roads of exile fleeing an attack that is every day more deadly and unfair. Two million, and more to come. So many broken lives and childhoods, separations due to war, unwavering resistance. In the face of this tragedy, Europe is activating the temporary protection of Ukrainian refugees. All i…

7 Mar

2022

FR Speech

Citizenship and residence by investment schemes (debate)

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Mr President, European passports and visas for sale... For a majority of exiles, the dream of joining the European Union ends at our borders. For a minority of the ultra-rich, on the other hand, a slap of the finger, accompanied by a nice sum of money, is enough to obtain the European grail. A promise to invest in exchange for a golden passport that allows you to travel freely, open a bank account…

24 Nov

2021

FR Speech

Fundamental rights and the rule of law in Slovenia, in particular the delayed nomination of EPPO prosecutors (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, just a few weeks before the end of the Slovenian Presidency, we are learning, not without some relief, of the appointment for five years of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is thus becoming fully operational, and I welcome that. Finally, Slovenia joins the fight against fraud and corruption linked to the European budget. But…

23 Nov

2021

FR Speech

Multilateral negotiations in view of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva, 30 November to 3 December 2021 (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the majority of our trade flows today prevent the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, international trade is responsible for 30% of our CO2 emissions, 30% of greenhouse gases and the loss of biodiversity worldwide. I often hear that trade should not serve other agendas, but neither should it serve them. Trade must serve the agenda…