What Elisabetta spoke about.

17 Sep

2026

EN Speech

An EU health workforce crisis plan: sustainability of healthcare systems and employment and working conditions in the healthcare sector (debate)

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Mr President, healthcare workers are facing a perfect storm. They are clearly understaffed. They work excessive hours while they get older, and they are subjected to stress and burnout and often fall victims to violence and assault, particularly women. Yet amidst all that, we ask the impossible of them: to be there for an ageing and ageing population, to help us reduce waiting lists, to stay perfe…

8 Jul

2026

IT Speech

EU’s response and preparedness to protect people against recurring heatwaves and upcoming wildfires (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in Europe we are already in the third wave of super heat and we are only at the beginning of July, so the data on climate change are indisputable and those who practice denial today are simply crazy. Therefore, those who deny climate change must stay out of politics, because our duty is to respond to the needs of citizens. And I see, however, that the empty b…

7 Jul

2026

EN Speech

Urgent measures to strengthen the competitiveness and safeguard quality jobs in the EU’s automotive sector (debate)

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Madam President, I wrote my PhD dissertation in Wolfsburg in the mid-1990s, on the introduction of flexibility and the four-day workweek at Volkswagen. It was a cyclical crisis that eventually seemed to be overcome. Today we are talking of a genuine collapse, and the alarm is broader in scope because we are talking of the breakdown of the German social and economic model, the one based on co-deter…

20 May

2026

EN Question

Advancing towards a care society: addressing the gender care gap (debate)

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Mr President, first of all, dear Commissioner, you have noticed that basically all women have spoken in this debate, except for three courageous colleagues, and except for, for a short time, a colleague of ours whose question was really not so clear to me. But, in any case, until you know that the issue of caregiving, and the gender gap relating to that, is only a topic discussed by women, and not…

19 May

2026

IT Speech

The attack against citizens in Modena: protecting public spaces and preventing violence in the EU (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am a Modenese woman in love with my city. On Saturday I was in Modena with my family. You can imagine the shock of Salim El Koudri's crazy, terrible, criminal act. A huge hug to the wounded and a huge thank you to the heroic citizens who blocked the criminal. To date, the motive would be a deep psychiatric illness and not terrorist ties. We'll see. But, lik…

28 Apr

2026

EN Speech

Ensuring accountability and justice in response to Russia’s continued attacks against the civilian population in Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, this is a war started by one man – Vladimir Putin. No one else. A man who wants to decide the destiny of independent nations and even their right to exist. The recent attacks in Odesa targeting infrastructure and residential buildings tell us that civilian deaths have increased in Ukraine over the last year. Fake news spread by Putin that Russia only hits military ta…

26 Mar

2026

EN Speech

EU-US trade deal (joint debate)

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Mr President, I would say to Mr Trump: we've been patient in front of your erratic and despotic behaviour. We were patient when you started a war without knowing how to finish it. We've been patient as you use trade policy as a weapon to take revenge and threaten countries and people who simply annoy you. We were patient when you called us free riders and parasites, and we were patient when your V…

11 Mar

2026

IT Speech

AccessibleEU and the strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities: state of play and the future of EU accessibility policy (debate)

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16 Dec

2025

IT Speech

Phasing out Russian natural gas imports and improving monitoring of potential energy dependencies (debate)

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22 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Ending all energy imports from Russia to the EU and closing loopholes through third countries (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, today it's really an historical moment because we have been talking for many years about the need to increase the strategic autonomy of the European Union, and the European Union has never been a fully-fledged political entity because it has suffered from two dependencies: in the east, on the gas from Russia, and in the west, on the United States for defence. A dem…

22 Oct

2025

EN Answer

The need for a united support to Ukraine and for a just and durable peace concluded on Ukraine's terms, with Europeans and without surrendering to Vladimir Putin's conditions ahead of the foreseen Budapest summit (debate)

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No, no, we do not believe that you are crazy people, absolutely. But these are two questions. So first of all, it is absolutely true that Putin does not want peace, and we are in the middle of a hybrid war all over Europe. We can see it every day in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and so on and so forth. Second, of course Putin is not winning, because there is an incredible resistance by heroes, people f…

22 Oct

2025

EN Speech

The need for a united support to Ukraine and for a just and durable peace concluded on Ukraine's terms, with Europeans and without surrendering to Vladimir Putin's conditions ahead of the foreseen Budapest summit (debate)

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Mr President, we all know very well what is really at stake in the Russia-Ukraine war: the defence of democracy against tyranny; the defence of pluralism against dictatorship; the defence of freedom against despotic leaders who really do not care about international law. So Putin's real target is not just the Ukraine or its critical materials, but Europe and the West: our values, our freedom, our …

8 Oct

2025

EN Speech

Europe’s automotive future – reversing the ban on the sale of combustion cars in the EU (topical debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, we know the numbers of the crisis of the automotive industry, we know the numbers of the production fall and the sales decrease. It is a perfect storm with multiple explaining factors: the transition to electric vehicles is costly and difficult given the shortage of raw materials and delays in the infrastructure; changing lifestyles; competition from China; tariffs…

10 Sep

2025

EN Speech

China’s unjustified decision to impose duties on imports of pork products from the EU and the need to support European farmers and workers (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, China's decision to impose anti-dumping duties of up to 62 % on the importation of European pork products is an act of profound economic injustice that damages our farmers a lot, with estimated costs of around USD 2 billion. It just happens when China itself is facing a significant domestic overcapacity of pork products, so there are no real and legitimate reasons …

20 Jan

2025

IT Speech

Powering Europe’s future - advancing the fusion industry for energy independence and innovation (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, investing in nuclear fusion research is a priority. Well the ITER project, to which the European Union contributes significantly, with almost half of the funds. None of us are against research – how can we be against research? – It is important to have a diversified portfolio of energy-generating technologies. We will need a lot of energy in the future, think…

18 Dec

2024

EN Speech

Urgent need for EU action to preserve nature and protect biodiversity to avoid the extinction of species (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, protecting biodiversity must continue to be our top priority. We have addressed it in the Green Deal, in the Nature Restoration Law, so we cannot step back or be afraid to move forward, because biodiversity is not just about the beauty of our landscapes and the fundamental fight against the extinction of animal and plant species – but it is also at the basis of our…

18 Dec

2024

IT Speech

Tackling abusive subcontracting and labour market intermediaries (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, subcontracting and the use of intermediaries are increasingly common in the world of work. Often, in construction they are also linked to accidents and deaths at work. Let's remember the five deaths in Florence in February 2024 due to the collapse of a construction site. The Platform Work Directive, for which I was rapporteur, includes in Article 3…

24 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Closing the EU skills gap: supporting people in the digital and green transitions to ensure inclusive growth and competitiveness in line with the Draghi report (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, the spread of digital technologies is having a huge impact on the labour market, and innovations such as AI, robotics, quantum technology and 6G are triggering a wave of new demands for a new generation of advanced digital skills. The Draghi report strongly highlights how digitalisation and AI are essential, for example for the public sector due to its ability to provid…

17 Sep

2024

EN Speech

State of the Energy union (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, words are important, and they want to remind all of us that we cannot talk of a Union of energy until we do not have a real single energy market. And this is linked to several factors, from energy security to the fight against energy poverty, to the competences of the EU in terms of institutional governance. For instance, after the war in Ukraine, …

24 Apr

2024

IT Speech

Improving working conditions in platform work (A9-0301/2022 - Elisabetta Gualmini) (vote)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I very much thank the shadow rapporteurs, the colleagues who have supported me in this very difficult negotiation and I use a euphemism. We have shown that when the European Parliament acts with determination, unity and unity, the European Union manages to touch the living flesh of people, to change the lives of its citizens for the better, in this case to pr…

24 Apr

2024

EN Speech

Amendments to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure concerning the training on preventing conflict and harassment in the workplace and on good office management (A9-0163/2024 - Gabriele Bischoff) (vote)

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Madam President, yeah, I know, because it was my fault. I mean, we were wrong in indicating the vote for Amendment 2 because we confused it with Amendment 8. Is it possible to... (The President cut off the speaker)…

13 Mar

2024

IT Speech

Resumption of the sitting

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately this morning we saw an unacceptable example of pro-Russian and Putinian propaganda by Mr De Graaff, precisely during the debate on Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia, some 20 000. It is crucial to condemn this kind of completely false propaganda. We have heard that it is actually Zelensky who has to go before the International Crimin…

13 Mar

2024

EN Speech

Need to address the urgent concerns surrounding Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia (debate)

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Madam President, I have to say that what happened some seconds ago with MEP Marcel de Graaff is a very, very serious issue. We cannot tolerate Russian propaganda in this House. We cannot tolerate pro-Putin fake propaganda in the House of democracy. We cannot tolerate the violation of the truth! We are fighting and all Parliament is united to defend democracy against tyranny, against authoritarian …

27 Feb

2024

IT Speech

Composition of committees and delegations

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, frankly, I am shocked to reply to Mr Ceccardi: The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, had to intervene, saying that the authority of law enforcement is not measured with batons on minors: 13 minors injured, who had every right to demonstrate. We are in favor of law enforcement but unarmed 15-year-old boys don't bat, neither here, nor ever.…

26 Feb

2024

IT Speech

Need to overcome the Council deadlock on the platform workers directive (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on 12 February last, four out of 27 countries (France, Germany, Estonia and Greece) blocked the agreement providing a minimum of social protection for 30 million platform workers. It was a shame! We want to understand why, because there is no rational explanation. The text makes it possible to correct the false self-employed, to recognize, only in the face of ob…