What Elisabetta spoke about.

Mr President, if truth be told, we should not die from work. We should not get sick from work. We should not risk burnout because of work. The revision of the European strategy on health and safety at work after the pandemic is totally necessary. In Italy, in 2021, one hundred people died at work each month; 10% of these were women. Even two young people, Giuseppe and Lorenzo, aged 16 and 18, recently died during their internship. Non-fatal accidents are also increasing, and risks and serious illnesses, stress, psychological disorders and cancer are growing and growing. The COVID pandemic has worsened the phenomenon. In a labour market which is changing a lot, old jobs are disappearing and new jobs, often precarious, unpaid, discontinuous, are spreading. We have advanced the legislation in Europe on health and safety. Now we have to connect the dots with the transformation of the labour market after the pandemic, not to mention the consequences of this cynical and criminal Russian aggression of Ukraine, with refugees who will have to work in European countries in decent and regular conditions. Platform workers, writers, remote workers. No big deal. But are we sure that smart working is really smart when you have to balance kids and work? The right to disconnect has to be part and parcel of remote working. We are now voting for a ‘vision zero’ approach for no more work-related deaths by 2030. This is a huge goal. But, at the end of the day, we have to transform work into what it has to be: good and rewarding. Because work gives you dignity. It gives you perspective. It gives you confidence, self-esteem, and it gives you imagination. This is what we are going to fight for forever, we as socialists and democrats, for decent and healthy work everywhere and for everyone.

Madam President, the 2020 budget is the first after the humongous financial effort of Next Generation EU. We are talking about the EUR 170 billion for the next year. We have asked for more resources compared to the Commission, overall EUR 4 billion more. The programmes for which we have asked for an increase range from Erasmus+ to the Child Guarantee, but here I would like to mention the COVAX programme, one which we speak too little about. Its goal is to deliver vaccines to low income countries all over the world. We need the EUR 1 billion more in order to reach the 500 million doses announced by von der Leyen. There can be no talk of getting out of the pandemic if it is only us who manage to get out. We cannot think about returning to normal life if it is only us who save ourselves. We cannot think that the right to a healthy life is only for the few and not for the many. We have learned that what solidarity means, and now we just have to spread the lesson.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are voting on a fundamental act on the use of the European Trust Funds and the Refugee Fund in countries such as Central Africa, Syria and Turkey. We are talking about the relationship between Europe and migration flows, between Europe and rights, between Europe and reception. So, if we talk at the bottom of rights and democracy, let's say loudly that we can no longer accept blackmail from countries like Turkey or recently Belarus, which use migrants as goods or as beasts to be moved or transferred here or there according to their national interests. Let us say loudly that we cannot accept that the countries receiving the funds use Europe as an ATM, which is not optional to respect people's fundamental rights. We say strongly that we cannot accept that the goals of development, employment and education are subject to logic of power and the horrendous exploitation of human beings. And we say strongly that we cannot accept that European funds finance the Libyan coast guard, perhaps to bring hundreds of migrants back to the port of Tripoli and send them to detention centers where contempt for human life reigns. As Socialists and Democrats we call for the establishment of an independent monitoring mechanism to monitor the destination of these funds. Parliament cannot be cut off! The rights are not for sale, "les droits ne sont pas à vendre": Ursula von der Leyen said it, let's say it too!

Mr President, platform workers represent maybe the newest form of work of the new millennium. Their numbers have increased with no bounds. Let me say that we are not afraid of innovations. We are not afraid of these disturbing and dystonic times in which you click a button and a arrives directly in your kitchen. We are not afraid even of flexibility – if it is a good thing. But innovations and transformations in the labour market have to move forward with social protection – the safeguarding of the dignity and safety of workers. Social rights are, at the very end of the day, human rights. We have been ambitious here. There is a three—step revolution going on. The rebuttable presumption of the employment relationship – if you have an obligation as an employee, you must have a right as an employee. There is no third way. We have put the burden and charge of solving eventual court conflicts between a platform and workers on the shoulders of platforms, of employers. Finally, transparency and clear information coming from algorithms. We do not want to see any more shameful salaries in what we call a ‘democratic Europe’. We don’t want to see new forms of slavery in what we call a ‘social Europe’. We don’t want to see forms of labour force exploitation and abuse in what we call a ‘fair Europe’. We do not ask much. We ask simply for a good balance between rights and duties, between economic growth and social compensation. We ask to build a new social, progressive, compassionate Europe.