What Dragoş spoke about.

Dear colleague, you’ve mentioned the fact that things should be applied at national level. I have opened the statistics looking at Denmark: the pay gap in Denmark is 12.7%. Is that the way you would like things to happen in Denmark? Is that proof that you are bringing forward that the situation is perfect? If you are for – as I understand from your declaration – equal pay, for equal work, then why in Denmark is the situation like that? This is exactly why we need a common action at the European level.

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, very often we get the question: What are we doing here in the European Parliament for the citizens? Every time I go home to Romania, I get this question: How do you change our daily lives for the better? A concrete example of our legislative work, of our work in the European Parliament, is the Gender Equality Directive. For 60 years we have been talking about principles and values that are not translated into practice. We see how women in society, including in Romania, have lower salaries than men, and when they retire, these things get worse. Today's initiative has a direct impact on the lives of people, especially women, and combats discrimination by removing gender pay inequalities and ensuring that all people, all European citizens, are paid fairly and equally for the same work. The directive will not only improve the economic situation of women, but will have a positive impact on society as a whole. I thank the rapporteurs (Samira Rafaela, Kira Peter-Hansen), all my colleagues who have been shadow rapporteurs and I am truly grateful and proud to be part of this team.

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear Minister, dear colleagues, how can we achieve more Europe, more jobs and a more competitive economy for all? The answer is by investing in our citizens. Investing in skills. Investing in our human capital. We need better and more adapted programmes for skilling, upskilling and reskilling to integrate more people in the labour market and decrease the unemployment rate. And this income will contribute directly to the economy and to the European industry. The investment in skills needs to go hand in hand with a social investment in people. We need to give more room to private investment and, in particular, to social impact investment. What future can we have for our industry if we do not look at the young people? The strategic investment in children, in youth, should become the new norm with equal importance as bricks and mortar investments. Investment in next generation policies is essential to ensure that children and young people are indeed equipped for the future. The European Year of Skills is the momentum to become more ambitious in our action. Our economy cannot be more competitive without a strong human capital and without active young people.

Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear Minister, living in dignity is a human right. In 2021, 95.4 million people in the EU, representing 21.7% of the EU population, were at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Just to clarify, that means that one in five people in the EU are in poverty or at risk of social exclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living further exacerbated the plight of individuals and households in precarious socioeconomic situations. Minimum income schemes serve as social safety nets, guaranteeing a minimum standard of living and the right to dignity at all stages of life. For people lacking sufficient resources and decent, stable employment, access to adequate minimum income plays an essential role in reducing poverty, social exclusion and inequalities and such schemes should be combined with incentives and measures enabling labour market activation for people who are able to work. Why do we have this debate? We have this debate because the situation in Europe is such, that there are many Member States that do not have such provisions. I myself, as a Minister of Labour in 2016 initiated the law on the minimum income for inclusion, it has not been implemented in 2017, and it should, and it has been postponed. It is still not implemented today. That is why we need this debate. Representing the Committee of Employment and Social Affairs, I would like to ask the Council the following questions: how will the Council encourage Member States to gradually set their minimum income schemes to at least the level of the national at risk of poverty threshold while providing incentives to reintegrate people who can work into the labour market? How will Member States ensure that beneficiaries of such schemes are not forced to accept precarious work? How does the Council intend to improve the coverage of the existing national scheme? How will Member States tackle the non-take-up problem – a very serious problem? What kind of mechanism will they establish to raise the awareness and ensure that those eligible are receiving the support that they can actually benefit from it? How will the Member States ensure that that such minimum income schemes do not substitute for social policy measures in other areas such as housing, healthcare, disability support or labour market integration? And how are Member States cooperating with social partners, civil society and all the other relevant stakeholders on the design, implementation and monitoring of the minimum income schemes, and where do they see room for improvement? The Committee of Employment and Social Affairs would also like to ask the Commission a couple of questions. How does the Commission intend to ensure that Member States gradually increase their minimum income schemes to at least the international AROPE threshold while providing the incentives that I have referred to before and enabling the measures to reintegrate those who can work in the labour market? Then the question is how will the Commission monitor the implementation of this recommendation and the contribution to achieving the 2030 targets, in particular, reducing the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion by at least 15 million, including the 5 million children – we are, right now, close to two years after Porto. How will it help Member States to tackle the non-take-up problem? Similar question for the Council as well. And what action does it intend to promote non-discrimination in the context of the minimum income schemes? And last but not least, certainly, how will it involve the social partners at European level in implementing and monitoring the Council recommendation? These are the questions that stem from the debate that we had in the Committee of Employment and Social Affairs. You will hear my colleagues underlining other very important elements in that. But I am really glad that we have this opportunity to discuss about this very, very serious situation. And I will thank you very much for your pertinent answers.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, dear Minister, I need to observe right now that we have a lot of young people that are watching us right now, and they are visitors and there are much more of them than us as Members of Parliament or the Commission or the Council in this room. And this is a pity because they are really interested about this shift that we are talking about. The change of the semester. The semester is the way that people, the young people, everyone, are looking to see how we are shifting towards a sustainable, inclusive and resilient growth model. This debate is crucial. This is not just a technocratic thing that we’re doing here. The future of investment, if we want to do investment, cannot be foreseen without a social component that responds to the fears and expectations of the young generations and all the citizens in Europe. We have to fight against all forms of social exclusion and poverty, especially poverty among children. The recovery and resilience plans are essential for supporting smart reforms and investments. And then the review that we are talking about of this semester, it’s a unique opportunity to redesign the architecture of EU economic governance and to create a tool for reinforcing reforms and investment. We look forward to working together to create a stronger and more resilient Europe. And we also look forward to working with the young generations that right now are interested in knowing more about Europe.

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, our present will be history for the generations to come. We are directly responsible for how we write this chapter of history. Together with my colleagues, Siegfried Mureșan and Eider Gardiazabal, we chose to respond to citizens' concerns and needs through concrete solutions. People in Europe's poorest areas need renovated homes so they don't get cold. People in vulnerability across Europe need support for energy renovation, new electrical and thermal installations to pay lower bills, photovoltaic panels, green energy that is no longer dependent on expensive energy. The corner bakery, the small entrepreneurs need panels, heat pumps, to consume less electricity. Many entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises are looking for better insulated buildings so that their employees can work in better conditions. Large companies want skilled employees with skills in industries of the future. There could be miners and people who are underprivileged, whom the government could help for these jobs. These are the real needs that must receive European money. REPowerEU offers all these opportunities, but it comes with one condition: responsibility. Dear Governors, be responsible. Respect the NRRP and its reforms! Reforms do not bring votes, but they bring something more valuable: a better life for people, a future for industry, a stronger economy and add new investments to the NRRPs that can be financed through REPowerEU. Guys, there's no time to waste! Romania has at least EUR 1.4 billion at its disposal to make its households and SMEs more energy efficient. Ask your government what it wants to spend the REPowerEU money on, ask to be consulted on the measures that will be included, and make sure that the REPowerEU money reaches those who need it. Let's bring green energy into our homes!

Madam President, one year has passed since Putin decided to illegally invade and punish innocent people in Ukraine, and we still cannot recover from the impact his decision had. Fear, insecurity, darkness overshadow our borders. So much pressure was put on our economy, on our people; prices increased and inflation reached record peaks. And then so many questions started to emerge: How will we all heat our homes? How are we going to pay our bills? Will we have enough energy storage at EU level? Will we be able to produce our own energy? But dear citizens, no winter lasts forever. Every winter has its spring. And this spring it is called REPowerEU. Together with my colleagues, Siegfried Mureşan and Eider Gardiazabal, we team up again and join our forces from different committees. We took each concern one by one and found answers to them. How do we fight fear? With ambition! Citizens had a tough year, barely managing to buy food and basic goods with the increased prices, and now they have to struggle with high energy bills. We can’t let our entrepreneurs, our small businesses alone, we need sustainable solutions now, not later. And we can do that thanks to the REPowerEU, this green instrument that delivers no less than EUR 20 billion to Member States, in addition to the money received through the RRF. Ask your government what energy measures they plan to include in the recovery plans, and make sure you will find how to become more energy efficient, how to diminish your bills. How do we fight insecurity? With secure investments! Our industry is not resilient yet; we need more autonomy and less dependency, and we can achieve that through REPowerEU. The Russian gas and fossil fuels were used as a political and economic weapon. We do not need it because we are right now capable of increased storage, of producing our own energy, but not at any cost. We need to keep our green ambition, and the investment must respect the do ‘no significant harm’ principle. We must use the full force of our natural resources: wind, water, sun to diversify our energy system because we need a clean net zero continent for our citizens, especially for our next generations. On this path towards the green transition, no one must be left behind. Let’s use REPowerEU to renovate the buildings in which poor people are now freezing cold. Let’s help the street corner shops to reduce their energy bills. Let’s support our SMEs to work in energy efficient offices. Let’s invest in reskilling and upskilling to equip our citizens with green and digital skills. And how do we fight darkness? With transparency! How can politicians be credible in the eyes of our citizens, when we cannot show how EU taxpayers’ money is spent. And we explained from the Parliament’s side over and over again that all these billions of Euros must be spent by governments with responsibility, clarity and transparency. It was in vain in the RRF negotiations, and after two years, we still wonder who benefits from the recovery and resilience plans. And now, REPowerEU adds more investments in national plans. So we set up a clear requirement: as of now, each government will need to publish the top 100 beneficiaries receiving funding from the recovery plan. In conclusion, ambition, secure investments, transparency – this is, in a nutshell, what REPowerEU proposes. And now we wait to see how governments will use the money. I hope to find in the updated plans innovative, disruptive and concrete measures for Europe’s energy system. As Benjamin Franklin used to say, energy and persistence conquer all things. Thank you very much, and don’t forget: let’s REPower Europe!

Madam President, dear Commissioner Hahn, the challenges that we have faced since the adoption of the MFF 2021 to 2027 place us in a completely changed social, economic and political context. It is clear that we need to look at a very different scale for flexibility, as well as the resources needed to navigate through these challenging times. Today, just to browse some data, 96.5 million people in the EU are the risk of poverty and social exclusion, which represents a staggering 21.9% of the population. Imagine: one in five Europeans is suffering at the edge of poverty in this multiple crisis that we are having today – energy, inflation, and a potential economic crisis as well. These numbers will grow at the same pace as inflation and food and energy prices increase across the EU. On behalf of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, we would like to have an urgent increase of European Child Guarantee funding through a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion for the period 2021—2027. This needs to be at the core of the revised MFF and reinforced ESF+. This means we have to provide higher public and social investment. We need to be more ambitious than initially planned.

Mr President, Minister Balaš, dear Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, we are all responsible for the sad reality in which now in Europe, Andre wakes up in the morning in a freezing home – if he is lucky to have one. Maria eats leftover breakfast, if she’s lucky to have some food these days. Luis prepares for a 10 kilometre walk to school, if he’s lucky to have the opportunity to study. Alice would like to play in the snow with her friends, but takes care of her brothers if she’s lucky to have a parent that went early in the morning to work. This is the sad reality for one out of four children in Europe. And for the first time in a long time our children risk having fewer opportunities than we did. And what parents are we to accept that? What are we if we don’t do everything to prevent this from happening? Our countries, our Member States, have now an opportunity like never before – the European child guarantee. This is one of the first documents of this type in the world. This is an unprecedented pledge to ensure vital access and opportunity to care and basic needs for the children who most need them. However, the child guarantee looks like a blah blah still for too many European children. As 12 of the Member States still have not managed to come up with an action plan for its implementation and out of the ones that did, not all of them have presented quality measures with those plans. As wonderful as our initiatives might be, as optimistic as our words can sound, they amount to little in the behaviour of governments and political parties at national level who are consistently failing to prioritise the fight against child poverty. We need strong commitment from the Member States, accompanied by quality action plans in entire Europe. We have allocated a dedicated budget and we are putting forward amendments to get EUR 20 billion for the 2021-2027 period and we would like to have that as part of the revised MMF. The crisis of energy and food will worsen the already dramatic life of Andre, Maria, Luis and Alice unless they are lucky to have governments that care about them. Unless we choose to prioritise their present, their future, and to create opportunities for them.

Madam President, dear Commissioner, indeed the European Year of Youth 2022 was a good decision. And this was a good decision because it allowed us to listen better to our young generation. In my political group, in Renew, we had the Renew Europe Task Force set to have meetings and several interactions with the young people. Our youth political organisations have been involved in, and we’ve exchanged about, the youth’s needs: about the need for paid internships, about the need for learning opportunities, about the need for digitalisation, a more inclusive society, about the mental health challenges, about the feeling of belonging, about the need for their access to decision-making process. And I’m really glad that we have young people that are present with us today and will hear us. The fact that we are not going to take all these things easily; we will try to put together the implementation for that. One important part is related to the investment in the young generation, the next generation. We have the Child Guarantee, we have the Youth Guarantee, and we need to push that further. But then if we care about the youth, we should have them on board today, not in a distant future. We should allow them to be part in designing their future today. If we want better policies for youth, we need to have you, the young people, involved in decisions, and having this youth impact test mainstream today. To say that we care about young people, it means that we need to get them on board with us for their good.

Madam President, Commissioner Breton, dear colleagues, congratulations to the rapporteur Martina Dlabajová for the great job on this file. I will begin by saying something that I firmly believe: Europe in the future will be digital or it won’t work at all. There are risks since the dawn of time with all new technologies but, harnessed properly, digitalisation can lead to more access and opportunity for those often left behind, not just for companies and tech giants. We can also use inclusive technologies to integrate people with disabilities. AI can avoid previous human biases in recruitment and, with the right digital skills, more people will gain access to new social prospects. But this will not happen by itself. We have to ensure that digitalisation leaves no one behind, nor is it used to create gaps in our legislation or to exploit workers or curtail their rights. Happy workers mean happy companies. So let’s use the Digital Decade to make that happen in Europe.

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, REPowerEU is nothing more than a commitment we make to citizens that we can overcome this crisis. This is a sign of the solidarity of the European Union. We have a moral duty to use this tool for the benefit of citizens. They are our priority, not the political color, not the backstage games. It is very good that we have seen that we have a strong position of the European Parliament in terms of the content of this programme and how we relate to lifting citizens out of energy poverty, how we can have more sustainable energy sources and no longer depend on Russian gas. At the same time, however, it is very important that REPowerEU is not used as a political objective to modify reforms already adopted in the national recovery and resilience plans, which are not directly linked to the purpose of REPowerEU. This will be a crucial thing tomorrow and will divide Parliament between those who will support reforms and the reform agenda at European level and those who will seek to find a pretext in the REPowerEU negotiations to thin out the way in which these reforms have to be carried out. No responsible government, no member state must flee from reforms. The timetable of targets and milestones set out in the national plans must be respected, especially when it comes to reforms that have not been carried out for so long. It is very important that, also through what we do in REPowerEU, we can really move forward and not backwards, before what we have done through the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Tomorrow, the vote on recital 22 is a key vote that allows for the second part of this recital to be able to return to the Commission text with a negative vote. Tomorrow's vote + - + + is a key vote on recital 22 and will allow us to really have a reform position on REPowerEU.

Mr President, Vice-President Dombrovskis, Commissioner Gentiloni, dear colleagues, today we deliver. We repower Europe. What we are debating today and what we will vote tomorrow is the pure definition of why we have been elected by our citizens – to find solutions to their problems. Today, we provide our citizens with the tools to overcome this winter. We equip our continent with projects that will cut our dependency on Russia. We will invest in our continent to make it more sustainable and green for our next generations. This House showed already that in challenging times, in crisis situations, we can find solutions. And this time is no different. Guided by the principle of solidarity, we delivered two years ago the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Now we compliment this work with REPowerEU, allowing governments to improve their recovery plans with extra investment for more energy efficiency, for tackling energy poverty and for green energy resources. We at Renew Europe envisage REPowerEU with three goals in mind: ambition, transparency and flexibility. All these ingredients can be found in the position we put forward to you today. The first goal: ambition. Ambition is when we find sustainable solutions for this winter, not only for the distant future. The Parliament wants to see the REPowerEU money directly in the pockets of vulnerable households. And SMEs that are scared about this winter – and they’re already struggling with their energy bills – need micro—investment schemes to become more energy efficient now, not later, to reduce their energy bills now, not later. Second goal: transparency. Transparency is when we ask governments to disclose how they will use these new funds. The Parliament, together with civil society, is continuously signalling that we do not have enough clarity on the implementation of the plans on the beneficiaries. How many years need to pass until we finally have the data about the projects and beneficiaries of EU funds in a single interoperable format? But no transparency can be achieved without proper dialogue. REPowerEU measures will need to be drafted, designed and implemented together with civil society, with the private sector, with the local and regional authorities. We introduced the mandatory criteria in this sense – no REPowerEU money without proper consultation with stakeholders. Third goal: flexibility. Flexibility is when we think about the best use of new and existing funds. I know that governments may have many challenges that need to be solved with EU funds, but I also know that many of them have a lot of unspent funds from previous years due to bad absorption rates and change of circumstances. And instead of losing this money, why not use it for REPowerEU investment? I appeal to common sense and ask the governments to start counting and transfer all money that they were unable to spend in order to have more funding for the REPowerEU measures. This work would not have been possible without the cooperation among us, the colleagues that worked on this file – Siegfried Mureşan from EPP, Eider Gardiazabal Rubial from S&D. We struggled to find together the proper balance between the pragmatic projects that our citizens need right now and the green and sustainable society we want to leave behind for our youth and children. We overcame our differences and reached solid compromises, aligning our priorities. Rest assured, we will defend this mandate given by the House with responsibility, and we will show the same unity during the negotiation ahead as we did when we negotiated the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Ambition, transparency, flexibility – this is how we can emerge even stronger from this new crisis and build a truly resilient and energy—independent Europe. I urge you to vote tomorrow thinking of the next generation, of the legacy we will leave for the future, and of the solidarity with Ukraine and against Russia’s aggression. Let’s repower Europe together.

Madam President, Commissioner, dear distinguished Members of the Council, dear colleagues, it is in times of crisis when the Union needs to be closer to its citizens with strategies, action and, most importantly, with the needed budgetary and financial needs. As Chair of the Employment Committee, I wanted us to be more ambitious when it comes to the European Social Fund Plus, which is a key driver for strengthening the social dimension, investing in people and promoting employment. I wanted to see it in 2023, the European Parliament making the political call for the investment in children and young people by supporting additional allocation to Child Guarantee, by supporting the social dialogue. Not all these requests have been, right now, put together, but I still believe that this is important for the European Parliament. I hope that in the context of the revision of the MFF, we can keep our ambitions and ask for more resources to invest in people and mitigate the increasing inequality, documented, evidence—based, support the implementation of the European Care Strategy and promote the upskilling and reskilling by allocating more resources to the European Year of Skills. We need to put the resources in what we have been right now deciding to have in 2023. We need to have a strong call for increased flexibility and sufficient resources to respond to major crisis and accelerate the process of programming so that in 2023 we start finally, in all Member States, the implementation of 2021–2027 MFF funding. We need the Member States to spend all available resources for people. We cannot afford to waste more time in not spending the money that we have, for the well—being of our citizens. Thank you all, especially to my colleague Nicolae Ştefănuță, for all the work.

Mr President, Vice-President Dombrovskis, Commissioner Gentiloni, distinguished Members of the Council, dear colleagues, we are indeed living in difficult times and in difficult times what we need is three important ingredients: we need ambition, we need flexibility, and we need solidarity. Ambition is important these days because regardless of the pain that we are feeling, all of us today, we need to be resolved and keep the important goals that we’ve set at the European Union level. And that means that the dual transformation, the green and the digital, the way we would like to get the strategic autonomy, we should not, you know, cancel our results on this. On the second time, we need flexibility. We need to have creative instruments that can reunite the resources that we put together. Then we also need in times of difficulty, a solidarity that only us at European level can achieve together. For that, it is important to have a view of the citizens, the entrepreneurs and the self-employed. And Renew Europe is proposing something that you have already seen in the public sphere: a shield, a shield that will not necessarily imply that states know everything for our citizens, but that we go close to them and allow them to have the necessary micro investments to do that. And REPowerEU is exactly the instrument that we have been working together these days in the Parliament, we’ve seen the Commission, we’ve seen the general approach of the Council, and this is something that can go down and have the micro investments at the vulnerable level, at the SME and micro-enterprise level. This is a way of pushing forward with solidarity. This is the Renew way. This is the European way.

Madam President, Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, dear colleagues, the European Union is clearly fighting poverty, which is why we have the European Pillar of Social Rights. Here in the European Parliament, we are fighting for a social agenda in Europe. We have things that we have been able to push and adopt, and the progress in this mandate related to the Child Guarantee, the care strategy, the minimum wage and all the other projects that we have is going in this direction. But what we need now in Europe is a social dimension that is better taken into account by the Member States. We need to strengthen European collaboration in this area. Romania, for example, ranks first in Europe in terms of poverty. But when we look at how much European money has come to Romania lately, the fact that the Youth Guarantee has not been well implemented, the Child Guarantee still does not have an action plan officially submitted. All these things are real concerns that Member States have to deal with. This means, in fact, having more than speeches, but also implementation.

Madam President, on behalf of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, I would like to congratulate all my colleagues for the work done in supporting Roma minority rights, including the relentless efforts of our rapporteur today, Lucia Nicholsonová. We have done an official mission to see those settlements. We have seen them with our own eyes; we have heard plenty of testimonials. We know that the situation is really unacceptable. We have a strategy, we have frameworks, we have recommendations, we even have money. The Council representative said that the Council believes that Member States should make full use of EU resources, and it is good that the Council believes that, but the Member States do not make full use of resources. Money is not flowing where it should. We have recommendations related to the child guarantee and how this should be implemented, but the latest statistics show that one in two Roma children aged four to six doesn’t have access to education. The situation concerning housing and health conditions, and proper nutrition, access to jobs – all these are part of the resolution that we are going to vote on in Parliament tomorrow. This is a clear message that just relying on recommending Member States to do things is not the right way to go forward. This has two important aspects. One is related to liberties and rights, and for that, the Commission should go with infringement over infringement over infringement, and to go with having direct responsibility of mayors and state officials for this situation. It’s unacceptable to have modern slavery and to have children that have that problem today. And of course, the other part is investment. This is an investment in the European future. Just allowing the opportunity there and breaking the vicious cycle is the way to go forward.

Madam President, as Chair of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, I would like to underline to Commissioner Simpson the profound social dimension triggered by the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis. Indeed, winter is coming, dear colleagues, and we need immediate action on the energy market, as you all well suggested, but also a plan to empower and shield our citizens and entrepreneurs. This plan can exist right now under the form of REPowerEU, which is focused and targeted for energy independence. But we need to add an emergency dimension that can reach vulnerable households and entrepreneurs. This is why I am suggesting the European Energy Transition Investment Shield as a scheme for micro—investment grants, for energy efficiency and energy alternatives that can be done in forms of vouchers – and we have the experience of FEAD. These can actually be a very, very efficient way to prove that the European Union is close to its citizens. Vladimir Putin has chosen war, blackmail and isolation. We should choose peace, unity and solidarity and be there for our citizens at household level with the help of REPowerEU.

Mr President, Commissioner, after a lot of hard work and complicated negotiations, here we have a step towards implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights. Principle Six makes it very clear that workers have the right to fair wages. We can no longer have Member States that forget to update wages on time or that use all sorts of vague methods of uncertain negotiations or political agreements for something that must be a minimum basis for European citizens. The criteria in the directive are vital at times just like these we are living in, at a time of high inflation, in order to provide European workers with a minimum level of wage protection that compensates for the loss of purchasing power. We can no longer have unpredictability and bargaining on statutory minimum wages. This is what the directive does, and I believe that both workers and employers will benefit from this predictability. Thank you very much to the co-rapporteurs Agnes and Dennis, thank you to the Commissioner, Mr Schmit. Member States do not need two years to implement this act.

Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, we have been talking lately about the lockdown generation. We now have to recognise that the pandemic and Russia’s aggression in Ukraine have, however, exposed socio-economic vulnerabilities. Member States are increasingly indebted, deficits are rising and citizens' incomes are melting month by month due to inflation. It's not a solution to throw money out of the helicopter. Improving daily living comes from reforms, investments and building strong social resilience, including with the support of the national recovery and resilience plans. Improving our daily lives will come from the power we give to young people. Now, and not later, we need to invest in the generations of young people. Now, and not later, we need to invest in their education. Now, and not later, we need to create opportunities for them for the entrepreneurial environment. Young people must believe themselves that they can renew Europe. We are responsible for opening the door to Europe. We need courageous, swift and unprecedented measures to avoid a generation downgraded to a much lower standard of living than their parents or grandparents. This is why we have the European Pillar of Social Rights and it can lead us to a better life for all citizens.

Mr President, Commissioner Šuica, dear colleagues, the past couple of years show how the pandemic exacerbated the challenges faced by the care sector. This has been a stark reminder of the importance of the care sector, access to care and the efficiency of our social security systems. We have witnessed a lack of accessible and affordable, quality long—term care services, and unacceptable stress put on the millions of care professionals, especially women, during a period of stress and crisis in an understaffed and underfunded sector. Existing challenges have led also to a substantial share of informal care and outdated services not fit for the purpose. We need the necessary investment to give our citizens, who are the workers and beneficiaries of the sector, the tools to face the existing challenges and the increased demand on care services due to an ageing population. We must put forward the necessary responses to create more quality jobs in the care sector and care industry and ensure our citizens, without any discrimination, have access to quality formal care services in all their forms. The European care strategy stands as a pillar for the resilience of our social security systems. I would like to thank the rapporteurs and wish we have good cooperation with the Commission on this.

Mr President, dear Commissioner Dalli, dear colleagues, the crisis emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and the repercussions of the war in Ukraine have disproportionately affected women. And yes, it is true, women suffered more. And I wish more colleagues would be here to join us for this important debate. It is dangerously jeopardising the progress made in the past few decades on reducing poverty and gender inequalities. To reverse this trend of the last couple of years, we must address the multidimensional root causes of women’s poverty and help their empowerment against pay inequality, discrimination, segregation, unpaid care, domestic labour and economic dependence. It is crucial to ensure that access to education, to training, to digital skills programmes and to create opportunities for the labour market, entrepreneurship and high career prospects. Combining their participation with accessible and quality childcare support and essential pay transparency will help strengthen the principle of equal pay. We remain a long way from ending women’s poverty in Europe, but we must continue our efforts to move closer to the goal. This report and the policies currently being discussed in parallel are a step in the direction and I am looking forward to the cooperation with the European Commission for this particular cause.

Madam President, I have listened very carefully in these late hours of the evening to the Commissioner’s concerns and ideas and am sure that the Commission will put all efforts into ensuring that this Facility will be properly implemented. But its success, to be very honest, relies mainly on the Member States, and it can only happen through more transparency, better involvement of stakeholders and strong monitoring tools. Rest assured, the Parliament will continue its oversight. We will not stop the activity of our working group. We will soon start our work to ensure that the REPowerEU, as you have mentioned, is properly introducing the objectives of this Facility. It is in indeed an important appeal that goes towards the Commission – and thank you very much for your openness on that: we truly hope that you will fully take into account the views adopted today in the upcoming review report on the implementation of the RRF, which you will soon present to us. One last word relating to how the RRF is seen outside the EU. It is an exercise of economic governance, of accountability, of legitimacy and, even more important, an exercise in which we would like to give a model worldwide. I have been attending two high—level conferences at United Nations level, and it’s very important to say that the international community looks at the RRF as an important model of how to deal with crises and to boost resilience. The Sendai framework that relates to disaster risk reduction, and all the other things that are done right now – and we had the earlier debate on SDGs – are very much linked to how we how successful we will be with the RRF. So the European Union, of course, needs the RRF for its internal development, but it is also very important to give a model worldwide that will put the EU leadership again in the right place at the global level. I would like to thank my co-rapporteurs, Siegfried Mureşan and Eider Gardiazabal, and all the shadows, the Commission and all the people that have worked towards preparation and adoption of this report.

Madam President, Commissioner Gentiloni, dear colleagues, it is indeed a great privilege to see that today the Parliament takes one step further in ensuring, first and foremost, democratic accountability as a solid principle at the core of the largest financial instruments that the EU has ever seen. The Recovery and Resilience Facility marks, and will mark for the generations that follow, a new chapter in the history of our European Union. It is indeed a beautiful symbol of solidarity in one of our darkest times, showing that only united we can emerge more resilient following crises such as the pandemic. It puts forward a new concept in EU funds that blends reforms with investments and guides EU Member States in how best to invest the allocated funds. And it has created ownership on responding to the country-specific recommendations that were not taken on board by Member States for years beforehand. It’s also setting the ambition higher for our economic governance framework in showing that the Parliament can and should have a greater role to play. Back in 2020, this House stood united in negotiation with an amazing negotiation team of our rapporteurs and shadows. And we have been demanding at that time things that right now are already in regulation and in course of implementation. The Member States have been asked to draft the recovery and resilience plans in a balanced way, including measures on six pillars, also demanding from Parliament side that there will be proper consultations with stakeholders in the drafting and implementation of plans and, as has been underlined by my colleague, co-rapporteurs, demanding transparency in how money should be spent, highlighting beneficiaries, creating proper control mechanisms and setting up monitoring too. We are right now halfway through this Facility, which we decided back then we would make it last until 2023. Where do we stand on the points that we so much defended? Until now, the Parliament had many initiatives to ensure the proper and effective implementation of the Facility. We organised, as you well know, several plenary debates, drafted several resolutions, expressing our position on key moments in its evolution. We organised much-needed recovery and resilience dialogues with Vice-President Dombrovskis and Commissioner Gentiloni and held recurrent RRF working groups, meetings and discussions with Commission representatives and civil society organisations. Now in this initiative that we have today debated, related to our own implementation report, it’s an analysis on how we see the progress Member States registered so far. And together with my dear colleagues, Siegfried Mureşan from the EPP and Eider Gardiazabal Rubial from the S&D, together with all the shadows, we produced an extensive analysis on the current state of play. We are glad to see that Member States made the effort and submitted their plans. It was not an easy task. We knew from the beginning that drafting a plan of reforms and investments will be a complex task with a lot of pressure and a lot of expectations. We are glad that almost all plans managed to obtain approval. But do not forget: a plan must never be approved at any cost. Always remember that EU values are essential, non-negotiable, and they must set the foundation of each action, project, reform or investment that uses EU funds. The plans are much more than paperwork to justify the money. The plans in several Member States are a roadmap to development to further expand and develop their economies. The plans are the ways to launch important social reforms. The plans are important steps in being sure that children and youth are taken care of with enough attention. We have read many good ideas in the plans. We have seen investment that could easily be scaled up in other Member States. But I just wanted to say that I am also having things that we could have done better. For instance, too many plans do not properly reflect the ambition set by the European Child Guarantee, and they reflect only partially those of the Reinforced Youth Guarantee. And there are even two Member States that have chosen not to include in their plans measures specifically dedicated to children and youth, but prefer to present measures that foster only skills and digital skills for all citizens. We are living in challenging times, which require both unity and flexibility. Unity also means inclusiveness and Member States did little or not too much to include local and regional authorities, civil society organisations, social partners, academia or other relevant stakeholders in the design of the plans. Governments have now the chance, the opportunity, to prove that the implementation of the plans is done together with the stakeholders, in order to involve them in implementation and monitoring, based on clear and transparent principles. And then flexibility. The current situation in Ukraine is having a heavy impact on energy prices and the need to strengthen this energy security. All these elements can be achieved through REPowerEU, a necessary instrument, which Member States will be able to add in their planned measures to achieve energy sovereignty and independence. Finally, and I would like to end here, we need to choose if the RRF will be just the story or a legacy. And I think that right now the Parliament is doing that and we are doing since we started the work on the RRF, and all this work can be continued if the Parliament gains an increased role in future EU initiatives.

Mr President, we have spent the past two years talking about how we emerge, how to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis stronger. We have spent two months of war in Ukraine doing the same. A crisis has this grim gift of providing ample supplies of one of the most elusive and valuable resource Europe needs, the political will to embrace change and to do the things that need to be done. I applaud the continuation of the sanctions, but we are still far away from the Parliament position. We still need ambitious tools and the instruments to move forward. In the pandemic we have created the RRF and other funds and measures that showed solidarity, that kept our businesses sometimes barely afloat and helped our citizens. Now, in two months we have moved defence supplies of an unprecedented scale and opened our countries to many more millions of Ukrainian refugees that we had seen during the 2015 refugee crisis. We do have right now a momentum of political will to reinforce our capacity to act for all Europeans, Ukrainians included, as they firmly belong in Europe by culture, values, geography, and now by bravery and commitment. I think it is time indeed to use the RRF at its full potential, to use all the resources, to use all the lessons learned and the solutions for the Member States, and this is part of the response. But at the same time, we should focus indeed, and I was really pleased to hear today that there is a discussion about the recovery plan from Ukraine. And for that, we need indeed to use the lessons learned from the RRF that are indeed valuable. The world will never be the same again, and Russia with Putin in charge will never again be a partner for Europe. So there is no more status quo return to, and we need to create a new normal one with reinforced financial tools that will ensure no European is left behind in the aftermath of Putin’s war, and Ukraine and Moldova as well get the welcome they need from the EU, that we emerge once again stronger together.