What Dragoş spoke about.

30 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women (debate)

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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…

30 Mar

2023

RO Speech

Strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women (debate)

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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…

15 Mar

2023

EN Speech

More Europe, more jobs: we are building the competitive economy of tomorrow for the benefit of all (topical debate)

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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 unemployme…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion (debate)

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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 plig…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

European Semester for economic policy coordination 2023 - European Semester for economic policy coordination: Employment and social priorities for 2023 (debate)

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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 seme…

13 Feb

2023

RO Speech

REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

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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 col…

13 Feb

2023

EN Speech

REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

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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 …

14 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Upscaling the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (debate)

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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 …

13 Dec

2022

EN Speech

A need for a dedicated budget to turn the Child Guarantee into reality - an urgency in times of energy and food crisis (debate)

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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 …

24 Nov

2022

EN Speech

The European Year of Youth 2022 Legacy (debate)

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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 exchang…

24 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Establishing the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030 (debate)

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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 opportunit…

9 Nov

2022

RO Speech

REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

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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 po…

9 Nov

2022

EN Speech

REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

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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 wil…

18 Oct

2022

EN Speech

General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023 - all sections (debate)

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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…

18 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Keep the bills down: social and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and the introduction of a windfall tax (debate)

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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 nee…

17 Oct

2022

RO Speech

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (debate)

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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 minim…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Situation of Roma people living in settlements in the EU (debate)

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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…

13 Sep

2022

EN Speech

EU response to the increase in energy prices in Europe (debate)

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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. …

13 Sep

2022

RO Speech

Adequate minimum wages in the European Union (debate)

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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 …

5 Jul

2022

RO Speech

EU initiatives to address the rising cost of living, including the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (debate)

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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 …

5 Jul

2022

EN Speech

Common European action on care (debate)

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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 pu…

4 Jul

2022

EN Speech

Women’s poverty in Europe (debate)

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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…

22 Jun

2022

EN Speech

Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (debate)

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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…

22 Jun

2022

EN Speech

Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (debate)

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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 ch…

4 May

2022

EN Speech

The social and economic consequences for the EU of the Russian war in Ukraine - reinforcing the EU’s capacity to act (debate)

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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 con…