What Gwendoline spoke about.

6

Apr

2022

EN Speech

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Cooperation and similarities between the Putin regime and extreme right and separatist movements in Europe (topical debate)

There is a city where extreme-right parties lie together and where the Russia-led International Investment Bank has recently moved its headquarters. This city is Budapest. Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour, VOX Party leaders and others have often taken pilgrimages there. In March 2021, Viktor Orbán called for the creation of a new European right-wing force for his type of people. Those who he says want …

8

Mar

2022

FR Speech

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

Mr President, the lack of equality between women and men, the lack of gender equality, is still a problem in our societies, in our Member States, in our economies, in our institutions, but also in our mental and structural patterns. Equality is still a struggle in certain professional fields, specifically for certain women and in certain families, and it remains unfinished everywhere. In political…

8

Mar

2022

EN Speech

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Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU (debate)

Madam President, we are becoming more and more concerned about foreign interference in our electoral process. We now fear the destructive capacity of fake news on security issues, health matters, our political leaders. But for years and years, there has been disinformation targeting one very specific topic, women’s rights. And it is a mistake that this has not been considered to be a serious probl…

7

Mar

2022

FR Speech

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Citizenship and residence by investment schemes (debate)

Mr President, for the past week Malta has decided to suspend the granting of its golden passports to Russian and Belarusian nationals. For the past week, therefore, oligarchs, corrupt people, men whose fortunes are often the result of criminal activities, have no longer been able to buy themselves European citizenship and the protection that goes with it, access to the Schengen area and other priv…

16

Feb

2022

FR Speech

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The Rule of Law and the consequences of the ECJ ruling (debate)

Madam President, fourteen months ago, the conditionality mechanism was adopted. Fourteen months. Since then, in December 2020, the Hungarian government has amended the Constitution for the umpteenth time and this has allowed it to exempt many public funds from any obligation of budgetary transparency. For 14 months also, the majority of Hungarian universities have been ceded by the state to founda…

14

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Digital Markets Act (debate)

Madam President, we do not want our online experiences to be dictated by the unfair practices of a handful of big tech companies. Their current dominance means that what we see online, who we interact with, and how our data is or isn’t protected is mostly controlled by a group of profit—driven companies, many being bigger in size than European countries. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) could have go…

13

Dec

2021

FR Speech

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Equality between women and men in the European Union in 2018-2020 (debate)

Madam President, yes, an overview of gender inequalities in the European Union is essential, as these inequalities are still very numerous and unbearable. A woman earns on average 14% less per hour than a man in the European Union, part-time work is mostly female, women’s pensions are ridiculous, many live in immense precariousness, and those from minorities, those with disabilities and those who …

13

Dec

2021

EN Speech

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Combating gender-based violence: cyberviolence (debate)

Mr President, a woman threatened online is in danger. If she’s a journalist, a politician, an activist, the consequences could be terrible. Young girls can be assaulted for days and weeks without an end in sight, and this is true for all victims of gender-based online violence. This is why some women, LGBTI+ people and minority people have ultimately left the online space to flee this discriminati…

25

Nov

2021

EN Speech

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The International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and the State of play on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention (continuation of debate)

Mr President, when an increasing number of countries decide to attack the Istanbul Convention and to use disinformation in order to undermine the protection of women and LGBTI people, the EU and its institutions must more than ever be exemplary and ambitious, not only by reaffirming our shared values on equality and fundamental rights but also by using the tools that we have to react when they are…

21

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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The outcome of the Western Balkans summit (continuation of debate)

Mr President, we are disappointed with the outcome of the Western Balkans Summit, but we also continue to be disappointed by the repeated lack of action on rule of law failings in the region. In Serbia, for example, the Commission is not just turning a blind eye, but pushing their candidacy forward and upgrading to a country-specific assessment in spite of the clear lack of progress in that state …

20

Oct

2021

FR Speech

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

Madam President, women activists in Poland who are mobilising for the right to abortion are being beaten, gassed, harassed and threatened with death, putting their lives at risk. What they are experiencing is unheard of brutality, brutality of another time. Women in general are presented as enemies in Poland today by the government. This incites extremist groups to target them unscrupulously. In a…

19

Oct

2021

FR Speech

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The Rule of law crisis in Poland and the primacy of EU law (debate)

Mr President, Polish citizens want to stay in the European Union and comply with the European project without any ambiguity. They demonstrate this vigorously when they respond positively to 90% of a poll, when they demonstrate in numbers and when they have been taking risks for years to defend European values and laws. Judges are now punished by their superiors, isolated, demoted in the performanc…

6

Oct

2021

EN Speech

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The state of play on the submitted RRF recovery plans awaiting approval (debate)

Mr President, on 27 April 2021, a new law was adopted in Hungary. It created a legal framework for public interest trusts performing public duties. More and more public services are being transferred. The boards of these trusts include current ministers and state secretaries. Public assets are being donated to private entities, and opacity will prevent any scrutiny on the use of the budget in thes…

15

Sep

2021

FR Speech

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Identifying gender-based violence as a new area of crime listed in Article 83(1) TFEU (debate)

Mr President, when a woman dies under the blows of her partner, when any woman is harassed on a daily basis in public spaces or at work, when a homosexual boy is massacred during a lynching, it is no coincidence. This is not the result of isolated acts of anger, deviant individual behaviour. Gender-based violence has a structural cause. Our European societies are historically and globally built by…

15

Sep

2021

FR Speech

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The Pegasus spyware scandal (debate)

Madam President, Pegasus is a European subject. The Israeli company NSO, which designed and sells this monitoring software, said that at least 30% of its customers were in Europe. It would be quite comfortable to consider the problem solely and exclusively as Chinese espionage, Russian espionage, foreign interference by authoritarian states, beyond the seas. But the reality is quite different and …

7

Jul

2021

EN Speech

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Breaches of EU law and of the rights of LGBTIQ citizens in Hungary as a result of the adopted legal changes in the Hungarian Parliament - The outcome of 22 June hearings under Article 7(1) of the TEU regarding Poland and Hungary (debate)

Mr President, I think this will follow on well after Guy Verhofstadt’s speaking time. I really fail to understand how it is possible that the situation in Hungary cannot be dealt with in a calm, straightforward, consistent and legitimate way with the tools we have, and they are efficient. The Article 7 procedure needs to be pursued. It needs a new set of hearings during the Slovenian Presidency, a…

6

Jul

2021

FR Speech

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Annual Report on the functioning of the Schengen area (debate)

Madam President, sometimes states dream of a Europe where goods move as freely as possible, without taxes, without environmental constraints, without social rules, but where human beings have the greatest difficulty in crossing borders. A European Union where one is wary of one’s neighbour and where one refuses to welcome one who comes from further afield. From 2015, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Nor…