What Irène spoke about.

Mr President, the Commission has put forward many initiatives to combat depopulation and promote rural development. This includes the long-term vision for rural areas, the Rural Pact and the Brainstorming Initiative. However, these initiatives are not of a budgetary nature. How does the Commission intend to ensure that an adequate proportion of the funds under shared management will be redirected to the requesting territories, in particular rural territories? Could a mirror initiative of the European Urban Initiative, which allocates a percentage of the ERDF to cities, be envisaged for rural areas in the future?

Madam President, Commissioner, the depopulation of certain territories is a worrying trend that risks undermining economic and social convergence in Europe. An ageing society, a high rate of migration, a lack of essential services, poor connectivity are the mirror of depopulation, which mainly affects rural and remote areas. In rural areas, however, we have a valuable tool to guarantee rural development and combat depopulation. This is LEADER. This programme is the best example of Europe and the proximity of Europe to the territories, to Europe, to the engaged citizens. LEADER is a vector of social innovation that allows citizens to take ownership of the development of their region, their living space and to design concerted strategies. However, the added value of LEADER is too often underestimated and the programme is not sufficiently valued. Does the Commission intend to consider strengthening the LEADER programme from a budgetary point of view? Could the typical bottom-up approach of this programme be extended to other financial instruments? Are the existing simplification measures sufficient to promote the multi-fund approach that would allow the LEADER programme to be financed by several structural funds and thus guarantee access to these funds for smaller communities and thus be more precise in solving this problem of depopulation?

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today is a moment of truth in our regional policy. At a time of the most difficult times in the recent history of our continent affected by the pandemic, the return of war, cohesion policy has proved to be a modern and flexible instrument that has been able and able to be deployed to respond to emergencies. The course of history leads us today to reflect on the future of this policy with the aim of strengthening it, modernising it, making it simpler and up to the great challenges of our continent. I therefore welcome the work of this House, pay tribute to Constanze Krehl and to all the shadow rapporteurs, including myself, in this House, because in the context of the eighth report we have produced an ambitious text which makes very concrete proposals for reform. We therefore look forward to the return of the Commission to work together now, to simplify cohesion policy, to invest more, more effectively in rural development and to improve the link between cohesion and economic governance. All our territories, all our citizens are waiting for us. We have to be there. We must respond now. EU regional policy is the closest policy, the most accessible to citizens. It is an indispensable tool for building a more inclusive, greener, more connected and smarter Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing the worst drought in 500 years. Fires have devastated more than 800 000 hectares in our Union, a figure that has never been recorded since the surveys began. These are no longer limited to the southern regions. Climate change is a major problem that affects us all. In France, in this year of sad records, seven out of ten fires are due to human negligence. We must therefore strengthen fire and drought prevention through awareness-raising campaigns. I propose to make the International Day for Disaster Reduction more visible and legible at European level. No citizen should ignore either the risks or the good deeds against natural disasters, taking as an example what exists in Japan or in the overseas territories. We must of course have an appropriate forestry policy, but above all improve the human and material resources of civil protection. Finally, I would like to express my deepest thanks to all the women and men who fight fires every year, putting their lives at risk, and to call on all Member States, like the Commission, to improve national and common resources to combat natural disasters.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, no, the fight for the right to abortion is not out of date, no offense to those in our Chamber who insist on saying otherwise. The US Supreme Court decision tragically reminds us that the right to abortion is never truly acquired. It is imperative that we learn from this dramatic situation and act quickly. I'm sorry to have to resume the fight of our grandmothers; because this decision is the result of the entrism of ultra-conservative religious movements in places of power in the United States, the same movements that are present in our chamber. That is why it is very good that we no longer let them in and that we are completely fighting against the presence on European soil of these movements, which are sometimes financed by foreign sources and which, insidiously, are gaining power in the European Union. There is urgency, urgency to fight retrograde movements, urgency above all to protect the right to abortion from their attacks; Because in the end, those who toast are women, especially the most fragile. So let’s take another step towards a Europe that protects our values by enshrining the right to abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Let’s make this choice today, because tomorrow may be too late.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union has repeatedly demonstrated that it stands by the Afghan people through its financial support and assistance programmes. In return, the Taliban have consistently flouted the conditions we set, including on fundamental rights, in particular the rights of women and girls, who are now deprived of education and employment. The Taliban regime did not respect the conditions that the EU had set for its continued assistance: permission for girls to return to school. A new school year has just begun and girls are forced to remain cloistered at home, or worse, they are sentenced to forced marriages. It is clear that our Union has kept its promises, unlike the Taliban, who have forgotten and flouted them. Access to education is a fundamental right. It is essential that the European Union reacts strongly and makes the return of girls to school in Afghanistan a red line. We must make every effort to ensure that Afghan girls and women have the right to live in dignity and the right to live free.

Madam President, Commissioner, we must collectively, here and now, meet the needs of Ukraine and Ukrainians. We must feed the refugees, feed their children, educate them, educate them also to rebuild their country. We have to send food to Ukraine. We must also help Ukraine, as requested yesterday, to harvest its crops. It is important that we set up the green corridors that have been requested and provide all the products to help Ukraine eat. This war has consequences in our Union and it reveals our weaknesses. This war reveals our energy dependence. It also reveals our dependence on third countries for animal feed. It is important that we gain sovereignty by investing. We owe it to Ukraine and the world.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, our European Parliament has never had so many women. Today we represent 39.5% of MEPs in this legislature. We have even recently elected a woman President of our institution for the third time in its history. Is this a sign that gender equality is progressing in our assembly? Certainly. Is that enough? Absolutely not. This progress is far too slow. We can, we must go further and faster. In the European Parliament, gender equality must become a reality on a daily basis. On the one hand, to ensure a balanced representation of women at all levels of operation and, on the other hand, to allow for effective gender mainstreaming in all our policies. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the aim of the report we are voting on today. In order to improve gender equality in the European Parliament, it is essential that women are properly represented. And there is no shortage of women who have the ambition to participate in European politics. However, barriers remain and they do not have the same opportunities to access the European Parliament as men. This report aims to remove these obstacles by proposing the introduction of quotas in the new European electoral law. In some countries of our Union, quotas in politics are already a reality. They've proven themselves. They have played an important role in promoting women’s access to decision-making bodies. This is necessary if we are ever to achieve parity in our institution. This work of balanced representation between women and men must continue beyond the election, because once elected, the difficulties begin. Women are less present in decision-making positions. Just look at the composition of committee chairs: out of 23 committees and subcommittees, just over a third are chaired by women. They also have less access to strategic reports. This report wants to remove these barriers through a reform of the European Parliament’s procedures, in order to introduce real parity at all levels of our institution’s functioning. In drafting this report, we found that the implementation of gender mainstreaming in our public policies is still too fragmented. Many legislative proposals do not take gender into account at all. Gender mainstreaming has not yet been extended to the entire EU budget. Yet it is one of the EU’s official approaches to achieving gender equality. The implementation of gender mainstreaming is therefore essential, because for too long our public policies have been made by men, for men. However, a policy that does not take into account the specific needs of women, i.e. 52% of our population, is at best a lost chance to improve equality between women and men, but much more likely the risk of worsening the situation. Thus, this report proposes a better integration of the gender dimension in our parliamentary activities, with the help of different measures. Too often, the gender perspective is not taken into account in our work, not so much by the will of MEPs, but by a lack of knowledge. This report therefore calls for better cooperation with the European Institute for Gender Equality, in order to provide specific training for MEPs, assistants, all staff, so that they are able to integrate a gender dimension into their work. The report also calls for the institutionalisation of the Gender Mainstreaming Network, a network of Members of the European Parliament comprising the members of the Committee on Women’s Rights and the gender mainstreaming delegates present in each parliamentary committee. Finally, with this report, we are calling for the gender perspective to be truly integrated into European legislation. We therefore call on the Commission to accompany each legislative and non-legislative proposal with a gender impact assessment. We need gender-disaggregated data, as this data allows us to become aware of the gender-differentiated impact of our policies. It is this awareness that allows us to act. It is also necessary for the EU budget to integrate this gender perspective by going beyond the mere financing of projects for gender equality, explicitly taking into account the objective of equality in the budgetary process. Every euro spent must benefit both women and men. On 8 March, International Women's Day, it is time to stop the big speeches. It's time to take action. We have the opportunity to make our European Parliament a model institution for our society by making a paradigm shift in how we operate. I say: Let's go, it's March 8th. We are International Women's Day. Let us make this Parliament a house where, as Olympe de Gouges said, women are born free and remain equal to men in rights. Let's make this house a day where every day is March 8th.

Mr President – dear Michal –, Commissioner – dear Helena –, Minister – dear Clément Beaune –, ladies and gentlemen, we are very lucky to live in Europe, where the issue of climate change has been tackled with the European Green Deal, thanks to which the European Union aims to become the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050. Climate change policies are a potentially formidable vehicle for promoting gender equality. These two challenges, climate change and gender equality, we must face together, because they are intimately linked. They are intimately linked because women can be the first victims of climate change – as has already been said – whether at the level of natural disasters or at the level of the impact of climate change on agricultural production, food, energy management at the domestic level, or even the management – in some countries – of transport. This phenomenon of climate change threatens, for example, food security and agricultural activities – which are mainly the responsibility of women, both in Africa and Asia. The latter do not own the land, they do not necessarily have access to credit, and the scarcity of natural resources affects their working time, contributes to their precariousness and, to compensate, children are put to work and girls are not in school. Women are therefore victims of climate change, but they are also vectors of this climate change. That is what I agree with you, Commissioner: the gender mainstreaming is essential. We need to lay the groundwork for shared numbers and diagnoses in all our policies for the implementation of the European Green Deal and its global declination. This is the formidable challenge we face, as gender equality is key to the fight against climate change. This is how we will all get there together.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, Member States must commit to, I quote, ‘decriminalising abortion and removing barriers’ to its de facto exercise, and to ensuring ‘safe and legal access to abortion based on women’s health and rights’. These words come from the report we voted on in June on sexual and reproductive rights, led by our colleague Fred Matić, to which I had the honour of contributing for my political group, in order to finally win the battle for abortion in this House. These words are our position, they are our commitment. The Renew Group has made a clear proposal to go further, the Simone Veil Pact, to push all women's rights upwards, including sexual and reproductive rights, and to achieve a society where women and men are equal. President Metsola, President Macron, who holds the rotating presidency of our Union, pledged to sign it. The President of France has proposed to go further by including the right to abortion in the list of fundamental rights. So, it's time: Let’s help them, let’s win the battle of abortion at trilogue level. Everyone in our country is going to see our governments, our national parliamentarians and make sure that these pacts are signed in all the countries of our Union and that the right to abortion is a reality for all European women. Because it is our body, it is our choice.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am over 50 years old, so I too have experienced psychological harassment and sexual harassment in my professional life – and not just a little bit. I was a woman, they were men. This was not related to the fact that they were men. This was linked to the fact that they had power. And today, in this Chamber, we have the power. Mandatory training of Members is therefore an extremely simple and effective way to explain to people who have power that power does not allow everything. I was harassed, but I also witnessed harassment and did not know what to do. We must make this training mandatory so that everyone in this House knows what to do and so that all the European policies we put in place are not tainted by scandals that we do not need and reflect society, its wealth and all its diversity, as we must do as exemplary MEPs.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are in the 21st century and here we are again debating inequality between women and men. It is disappointing. At the current rate, we may achieve equality in three generations, and that is without taking into account the impact of COVID-19 on equality, the full extent of which we cannot yet measure. We need a cultural revolution and a radical paradigm shift. There's an emergency! These inequalities and discriminations harm all of us. Women, but also men, must take up this challenge so that their daughters, sisters or mothers do not have to suffer any harm. And there is evidence that gender equality would do the greatest good for economic growth in our countries. In 2021, we can no longer accept that part of this hemicycle, elected by universal suffrage, supposed to represent both women and men in our Union, systematically votes against all texts that could advance women’s rights and reduce violence. Voting on this report will give us yet another glimpse of our Assembly: on the one hand, a minority with a feminist façade at the service of a conservative or even medieval vision, and on the other hand, a progressive majority that wants to fulfil this great promise of classical democracy, which is equality.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Jennifer in France, Angelica in Germany, Sylvia in Italy, Anna in Poland. Some names of women who are sisters, cousins, friends, mothers, daughters. Four human groups destroyed because these women were killed by their spouse or ex-spouse this year in 2021, in the European Union, here and now. Unfortunately, the list is longer. Every year, hundreds of women die in Europe, killed by their spouse or ex-spouse. Every day, women are abused, harassed, on the street, on the internet. Today we live in a society that is plagued by gender stereotypes. Patriarchy, machismo, sexism are always a reality. We European legislators have a responsibility. We cannot only protect ourselves behind the idea that the Istanbul Convention must go further. We also need a directive to fight violence, but we also need to lead a real cultural revolution so that in the education we provide to our girls and boys, at home and at school, from an early age, we pass on the culture of equality to boys and girls. So that this list of women killed no longer exists.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner. Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are. These words from Brillat-Savarin date back to 1825 and summarize the close connection that has always existed between our food and the world in which we live. So today, I am proud to be European and to support the ambitious policy objectives of the Green Deal, as set out in this Farm to Fork Strategy. The text we are going to vote on is balanced and shows the will of this House to be at the rendezvous of history. However, when implementing the strategy in concrete legislative terms, it will be necessary to be vigilant to avoid the negative effects mentioned in the Joint Research Centre study, such as the increase in the price of food or the relocation of carbon emissions, and to include all sectors, such as fruit and vegetables or wine – which are inexplicably excluded. To succeed in achieving these goals, we must at the same time move from free trade to fair trade with tools to protect our farmers’ incomes, such as mirror clauses for imported products, but also innovate, because yesterday’s solutions are not up to the climate challenge. Access to quality sustainable food should not be restricted to a privileged few. It is a fundamental right of every human being, including the most fragile.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, just a week ago we celebrated Abortion Rights Day. Today, once again, we are talking about restrictions on these rights. Yet, as we know, when abortion is prohibited, it is still practiced, because when a woman does not want to end a pregnancy, for whatever reason, that woman is her body, her choices, her rights. So we are talking, not about the European Union interfering in something in the United States, but about the fundamental rights of human beings, including women. So I ask all of you, as we showed in June, to vote very clearly to send a message: These are our bodies, these are our rights, these are our choices. We were able to show this with the report on sexual and reproductive rights, where we also talked about abortion. A woman who does not want to have an abortion can do so, and I fully respect her conclusions and beliefs. However, we are here to ensure a society in which everyone is equal and free to live their lives as they see fit. So, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to state this with courage and firmness through the vote on this resolution: The right to abortion is a fundamental right for women’s autonomy and self-determination. There is no space for setbacks, neither in Europe nor in Texas. Women of Texas, we are at your side.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom is undoubtedly one of the darkest moments in the history of the European project. Divorce with devastating economic and social consequences. A shock, too, which calls on the European Union to react quickly and to show once again its true face, that of solidarity. With the creation of this Brexit Adjustment Reserve, Europe, through all its institutions, has been able to be united, united and able to adopt a common response, on the scale of the unprecedented challenges we face with great speed. This aid is urgent, necessary and must be disbursed quickly, without red tape. All the differences have been put aside in favour of a political agreement that makes us all winners and that offers an oxygen balloon to our most affected businesses and jobs, our regions and our local communities, whose economic and social cohesion is strongly threatened by Brexit. The EU has once again prevailed in the face of divisions; this umpteenth proof of the solidarity of the European Union is also a message addressed to all kinds of national selfishness. And I am addressing some of our colleagues in this Chamber: leaving the European Union is never a solution. The solution is more cooperation, more solidarity, more union. The common European responses to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply of vaccines, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom are the best example of this. The European project is alive and it is alive more than ever.