What Robert spoke about.

14 Feb

2023

EN Speech

The EU priorities for the 67th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, minister, dear colleagues, as you are aware, in March, a delegation of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, which I have an honour to chair, will attend the 67th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women called CSW. This year’s CSW will focus on innovation and technological change and on education in the digita…

17 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter - annual report 2022 (debate)

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Mr President, women’s rights are human rights; in 2023, it cannot be anymore an empty slogan, but it’s still a case. Millions of girls and women and LGBTI+ people around the world continue to experience everyday discrimination in the enjoyment of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. In every conflict and every crisis, girls and women always pay the highest price. They are on the…

23 Nov

2022

PL Speech

Eliminating violence against Women (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. Victims of violence, women, have their names. Today we heard some of these names again from this rostrum. I will talk about another, about Izabela from Pszczyna, a 30-year-old Polish woman who lost her life only because a group of barbaric politicians in Poland led to the fact that Izabela could not perform a safe, legal abortion. There are hundreds of thousands, if not…

9 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (debate)

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Madam President, I thank Pascal Durand for his tremendous work on this dossier. The report is undoubtedly a big improvement in comparison to the initial Commission proposal, which, as we recall, laid out ambitious mandatory reporting requirements, but only in the field of corporate environmental sustainability. However, we must remember that sustainability does not only concern environmental matte…

19 Oct

2022

PL Speech

Whitewashing of the anti-European extreme right in the EU (topical debate)

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Mr President, thank you very much. Do you want to see what the far-right government looks like? Come to my homeland, to Poland. LGBT-free zones, women reduced to incubators, an alliance between the throne and the altar, an attack on the media and the judiciary – these things happen when we, ordinary people, look away, pretend not to see. When the far right is whitewashed, normalized, our Community…

4 Oct

2022

PL Speech

The death of Mahsa Amini and the repression of women's rights protesters in Iran (debate)

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Women's hell has been going on in Iran for years. Poverty, violence, huge unemployment, lack of protection against this violence, marital rape and early or forced marriages – this is everyday life in Iran. Seventeen days ago, brave girls and women raised their heads. They opposed this disgraceful regime. Today, women in Iran know that they have their rights, and they will not hesitate to use them.…

8 Jun

2022

EN Speech

Global threats to abortion rights: the possible overturn of abortion rights in the US by the Supreme Court (debate)

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There is a special place for everyone who violates human rights, so I fully agree with you, but we are today talking again, and again, and again on the resolution, describing how there are still violations of human rights. But I want to stand here one day when we will work on the resolution that finally puts in place a kind of a standardisation, that puts the issues concerning the right to abortio…

8 Jun

2022

PL Speech

Global threats to abortion rights: the possible overturn of abortion rights in the US by the Supreme Court (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once said that there is a special place in hell for women who don't support other women. Today I have the impression, listening to this room, that these were prophetic words. There must be something to it. Ladies, there is a special place for women who are not in solidarity with other women. Another women's rights icon, Judge R…

18 May

2022

PL Speech

Prosecution of the opposition and the detention of trade union leaders in Belarus (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. One thing is certain: There will be no free, secure Europe, no European Union without a free, secure, independent Belarus. Unfortunately, as the European Union, we have not yet done this lesson, because for all the years of Lukashenko's rule, we naively believed that Lukashenko could be civilised. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The hope…

5 May

2022

PL Speech

Building of a wall on the Polish – Belarus border in the Białowieża primeval forest (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Colleagues and colleagues! Remember the wall the world was talking about in 2018? It was a wall built by hatred, xenophobia, parochialism. Wall of former US President Donald Trump. A wall on the border with Mexico that was supposed to stop illegal immigration. Did he keep anyone but the animals, of course? No, because people will always find a w…

5 May

2022

EN Speech

The impact of the war against Ukraine on women (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, despite the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people, Russia’s barbaric war continues, and, as usual in such conflicts, girls and women pay the highest price. This is why the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality has prepared a resolution on the impact of this war on girls and women, which strongly condemns the Russian aggression and orders t…

5 Apr

2022

PL Speech

Situation in Afghanistan, in particular the situation of women’s rights (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Women's hell continues in Afghanistan. 87% of Afghan girls and women have experienced intimate partner violence in their lives. In 2021, Afghanistan ranked last in the Women, Peace and Security Global Index. Once again, we have been debating the situation of women here in recent months. We talked about women's hell in Belarus, in Poland, in Afgh…

8 Mar

2022

EN Speech

Gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament – annual report 2020 (debate)

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Mr President, it’s a special day today, International Women’s Day, and it’s unfortunately a bitter sweet day, bitter because of what’s happening in Ukraine and sweet because we have a bunch of good news, and let me start with that. Today, the Commission has announced the launch, the proposal of the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence. The other good news – the Women…

1 Mar

2022

PL Speech

Russian aggression against Ukraine (continuation of debate)

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The war returned to Europe. It's a war between two worlds: Putin's aggressive and authoritarian world and the other, where we want peace and democracy. This is a war in which Putin is a criminal and Ukrainian children, men and women are heroes. This is not just an aggression against Ukraine, it is Putin's war with the whole of Europe, with our values, our dreams of peace. That is why today we must…

16 Feb

2022

EN Speech

The EU priorities for the 66th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (debate)

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Mr President, climate change affects everyone: women, men, boys and girls. But unfortunately it affects them in different ways. Systemic discrimination has led to gender-differentiated impacts of climate change with respect to food security, health, livelihoods and even the deterioration of human rights, including sexual and reproductive health rights, making women the ones to pay the highest pric…

16 Feb

2022

PL Speech

EU-Russia relations, European security and Russia’s military threat against Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. We are the world's second democracy. It is a huge responsibility not only to support the democratization of the world, but also for peace in the world. Unfortunately, this is another debate and another situation in which we see that peace is not given once and for all. This is another lesson that we, as the European Union, have been better prepared for. This is another …

20 Jan

2022

PL Speech

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the European Union (continuation of debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Mr. Secretary of State! The women's hell continues. This hell has its real victims, its real suffering and the dramas of millions of women. Simone Veil, quoted many times today, said that these are the women we meet every day, not knowing anything about their dramas and their despair. We are the second democracy in the world. We are a community …

16 Dec

2021

PL Speech

MeToo and harassment – the consequences for the EU institutions (debate)

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Mr President, thank you very much. A clear signal must come from here today: zero tolerance for sexual harassment and violence, wherever it occurs: on the street, at work, at school or in this House. Because it is a secret that in the corridors of this House not all employees can feel safe, that harassment and sexual violence can meet us everywhere, also in the temple of European democracy. Unfort…

15 Dec

2021

PL Speech

Plans to undermine further fundamental rights in Poland, in particular regarding the standards of the European Convention of Human Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. Commissioner, thank you very much. It is impossible to hide, unfortunately, that thanks to the rule of Law and Justice, the hell of women in Poland continues. And we have another debate on this today. Let us recall: At the beginning of December, the Polish parliament was working on a bill that would punish abortion, assistance in abortion, miscarriage with twenty-five y…

15 Dec

2021

PL Speech

The European Commission Guidelines on inclusive language (topical debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Mr Weber, I hope you are ashamed of what you have provoked today. It's an embarrassing spectacle based on fake news. And you know it well. You are also well aware that today at this time a different debate was to take place, much more important for the average European: debate on rising energy prices, inflation and poverty. At this time of n…

24 Nov

2021

PL Speech

Outcome of the COP26 in Glasgow (debate)

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Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner, thank you very much. The dilemma of the glass we are talking about today is not whether it is half full or half empty after the last conference. The dilemma of the glass is that it will just be empty in a moment, because in many places in the world there will be no water. This is a real dilemma. If we are talking about global challenges, we need to …

10 Nov

2021

PL Speech

The escalating humanitarian crisis on the EU-Belarusian border, in particular in Poland (debate)

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Mr President, thank you very much. Oh, High Commissioner! Lukashenko and Putin are opening champagne today, looking at how they divided us. They are happy that the Polish government has fallen into the trap set by them. We have lost months urging the Polish government to come to its senses and start cooperating with the European Union. What did the Polish government do? He frightened the refugees.…

20 Oct

2021

PL Speech

The first anniversary of the de facto abortion ban in Poland (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. The women's hell continues. A year ago, Kaczynski sealed the sentence on women. Poland has become a de facto patriarchal religious state, in which Polish women are deprived of their voices and reduced to the role of an incubator. It's horrific barbarism and government-established torture. Unfortunately, the religiously and politically fundamental Polish Taliban do not s…

20 Oct

2021

PL Speech

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 21-22 October 2021 (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. On 7 October, the European Parliament adopted another resolution on the situation in Belarus, calling on the European Council to implement the next package of sanctions and prepare a related strategy. Tomorrow you are meeting, and I would like to ask you from here what the matter looks like on this issue, which concerns the security not only of the inhabitants of Belaru…

19 Oct

2021

PL Speech

General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 - all sections (debate)

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Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, We are talking about the next EU budget for 2022, but today we also talked about a very serious case concerning the state of the rule of law in the European Union. And it cannot be that we are adopting more budgets, turning our heads away from what is really happening in some Member States. I represent a country, Poland…