Speeches

Mr President, we are debating a lot this week about the reorganisation of the world order and the need to guarantee strategic technological autonomy for the European Union, for the survival of our democracies and, ultimately, of the European project itself, and we must achieve this in order to really guarantee the development of our own artificial intelligence, economic resilience and, as I say, the European project itself. The potential agreement of the Government of Italy with Starlink - Elon Musk's satellite communications service - is paradigmatic and we must know that the connection between politics, business and friendships is not innocuous and has very direct implications in strategic sectors of our economy and in our security, in our freedoms throughout Europe, not only in Italy. Therefore, we must accelerate and finance projects such as the Iris2, because, in the face of divisive actors, what we need is more Europe and more democracy.

Madam President, Commissioner, two things are clear today. The first, that artificial intelligence is a disruptive technology and that it will end up applying to all economic sectors, to all productive, administrative, medical processes, to the generation of knowledge. And the second is that a new world order is being designed, in which key players no longer respect the rules of multilateralism or international law. In this context, Europe needs to achieve its technological sovereignty and, for that, we need to act with unity and ambition, giving it the priority it undoubtedly deserves, defending our most democratic and most humane model of artificial intelligence development, and not the American standard of law of the strongest that Vice-President Vance defended this morning in Paris. That is why we call on the Commission to act swiftly and support boosting the production of artificial intelligence chips in Europe in all its regions, taking advantage of all the knowledge that already exists. Because if we don't take this train, we're certainly going to stay ashore.

Well, I think that the socialist parties have dedicated themselves to families, because it is precisely the socialist parties that have been behind the formation of the welfare states. They have been behind public services and quality employment, because there is a direct correlation between women's employment and fertility rates, which is the number of births per woman of childbearing age. Therefore, let us also allow women to participate in equality and freedom to do what we want with our lives. There are ten million more women in Europe and, for two decades, there have been more women than men with university degrees. Instead, we continue to be held accountable for care. Care is also the responsibility of men; It's everyone's responsibility. Therefore, let us move on to another social organization of care. We will do so as long as the public sector, the private sector and all men, especially men, are also jointly responsible for care. Because children, as far as I know, are not yet born from a coffee machine.

Mr President, Commissioner, Europe is certainly experiencing a demographic winter, but also an intentional use of that demographic winter to send regressive messages, such as the role of women in our society and in our economy. We just heard it. It's like the demographic winter, in the end, becomes a kind of blackmail for women against our sexual and reproductive rights, as if we were responsible for that demographic decline. We're not. Nor are we responsible for the loss of competitiveness. We must bet on innovation and improve productivity. Nor are we responsible for the lack of sustainability of our social model. What needs to be done is to ensure quality jobs and a fairer distribution of benefits. These measures, plus quality public services and greater co-responsibility, will also help women to have children if they want to. That is the socialist bet, as is guaranteeing the dignity of the people who give and receive care, favoring their autonomy. Let us therefore use the demographic crisis to advance gender equality, decent employment, innovation, sustainability of public services and a more humane and smarter look at migration.

Madam President, Commissioner, innovation in nuclear fusion - nuclear fusion, I insist, non-fission, which is what we normally have now and which does involve many accident risks and other problems - is a paradigmatic example of a strategic sector to advance European autonomy, putting the European Union at the forefront of clean energy technologies and supporting the competitiveness of our industry. It is also a sector in which international collaboration is very important; That is why, especially now with this difficult geopolitics, we need international collaboration, but also the involvement of universities and public-private collaboration, which are essential to achieve progress in results. I stress collaboration because we need it. Also of great importance is the role of research infrastructures and support for R&D, from European projects to projects in the countries themselves, and also in the regions, so that innovation reaches all places, as we did in the previous Socialist Government in Andalusia, promoting the consortium of IFMIF-DONES in Granada, which we hope will have very good results, especially also in the application in fields such as health.

Mr President, I will start in English and then move to Spanish. Thank you very much, Commissioner, for your words, for your commitment, because we need it and we count on you. Thank you very much for all the inputs we have received for this file, even the absent inputs of the Presidency that is absent from this debate, even the inputs that are really against gender equality, against women's rights, and the ones also that are xenophobic, identifying gender-based violence with immigrants. This is strange enough on the day that Pelicot has been condemned – as far as I know, he has not crossed the border recently. So thank you very much for all these inputs too, because they all show how important and central are women's rights and gender equality when we are talking about democracy, when we are talking about human rights, and also when we are defending our European project. So thank you very much. I now move to Spanish. Thank you to the interpreters. And I want to end this debate by saying loud and clear that we cannot afford to go back. Every right that is lost, every woman that is silenced in one way or another, is a reminder that rights are never guaranteed. This recommendation, which we are now debating, and which we will shortly be voting on, establishes the need for the Council, on behalf of the European Union and its Member States, to underline Europe's full commitment to the Beijing Declaration, which demonstrates this commitment by implementing gender equality and women's rights in all aspects of the European Union's external action, towards a feminist foreign, security and development policy. The Beijing Declaration gave us a bold vision for the future. It is now our duty to fulfil it, to expand it and to avoid setbacks. The time to act is now. So I ask you to approve and support this recommendation. And I wish you a happy holiday season and a prosperous feminist 2025.

Madam President, Commissioner, thank you very much to the various parliamentary representatives who have participated in this report and also to all your teams. Almost three decades ago, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action paved the way for gender equality and women's rights. It was a historic moment, which ignited hope for a more just and equitable future. However, as the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women approaches, we face a worrying reality: not only are we moving too slowly to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals related to gender equality, but we are seeing a global setback in women's rights, resignifying concepts such as freedom and the very concept of equality and developing a project of political economy of our bodies, which again serve the purposes of others and not for our own purposes. Let me be clear about this: These setbacks are not accidents, but are the result of organised movements that seek to stop the hard-won progress that goes against democracy and the founding values of the European Union. The data speaks for itself: It would take 286 years just to close the legal gaps and eliminate discriminatory laws. But even more alarming is that, in many parts of the world, women are losing rights they had already won. And I'm not just referring to less developed countries that don't yet have formal democracies. Some countries are restricting fundamental rights such as access to sexual and reproductive health, cutting funding for services that protect women and girls, and normalizing discourses that perpetuate gender stereotypes. Even here, within the European Union, we have seen how the global backsliding finds a worrying echo. This is not only a threat to women, especially those who are crossed by other axes of inequality. It is a threat to our democracies, to the European project itself. Because when women's rights go backwards, the whole society goes backwards. This setback not only harms women: by limiting our participation in politics, the economy or the generation of knowledge, we are holding back our collective ability to innovate, to thrive, to face global challenges such as climate change, humanitarian crises or the challenges of the digital transition. This setback also has material consequences for millions of people: poverty is further feminised, girls see their dreams truncated and gender stereotypes reinforce cycles of exclusion and violence. But the important thing is that we are not doomed to accept that setback. And the European Union - the women and also the men of this House - has a responsibility to prevent this. That is why we call in the Recommendation for addressing the systemic and root causes of inequalities between women and men, as well as women's poverty and lack of opportunities. We are talking about education, training, lifelong learning, non-discriminatory job opportunities, access to social services, balances in unpaid care through legislative initiative, the fight against sexist stereotypes and the promotion of women as models of leadership with authority, with power, in short. Similarly, in the Recommendation we call for gender mainstreaming in all policies and throughout the policy cycle with adequate funding. Thus, when the Council negotiates in New York, it should be able to point out that the European Union leads by example, with women taking their rightful role in decision-making alongside their male counterparts in all areas of life. We cannot condemn backsliding beyond our borders if we do not do enough to ensure equality within our own borders. For that, we need to push for feminist policies that address the root causes of inequality, protect and expand sexual and reproductive rights, and support civil society organizations that are all day at the bottom of the canyon.

Mr President, Commissioner, today we are summoned here by an urgent subject: That of the struggle of women and women activists in Iran against a regime that, for decades, has made repression its main tool of control, its very essence. Since the protests over the tragic death of Mahsa Jina Amini in 2022, we have witnessed an alarming upsurge in human rights violations: Brave women, activists and human rights defenders are the main targets of arbitrary arrests, torture, executions... including 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned in inhumane conditions. Because the so-called moral police are killing, silencing, burying women alive and, in the face of this, we cannot be silent, we cannot remain silent. It is our responsibility to do so here, in Europe, and around the world, because the women of Iran are not alone: We're with them.

Mr President, Commissioner, sexist violence feeds on those who keep quiet, those who deny it, those who laugh, those who do not believe the victims and make them go through a new ordeal again, those who do not put budgets or means or laws to combat it, those who naturalize it, those who give likes They share the grievances of women, of those who objectify and dehumanise us, especially in the digital world, but not only there, because we know that eight out of ten European women aged between 16 and 29 avoid situations or places for fear of physical or sexual aggression, not to mention the fear that mothers and fathers suffer. Violence against women and girls has no borders. There was talk here today of the case of Gisèle Pelicot. Yesterday a woman was murdered in my land, in Estepa, in Seville, in Andalusia. That is not the Europe or the world we want. That is why we in the European Parliament call for the full implementation of the directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence in all countries. We urge the Commission to come forward with a proposal to identify gender-based violence as a new Eurocrime and we continue to fight for the criminalisation of rape based on the absence of consent. Today, 25 November, and every day, not a step back from the reaction of the anti-gender extreme right in this House and across Europe.

Madam President, Mr Vice-President, the election results of the United States confront us with significant challenges as Europeans and as Europeans, despite the close cooperation we have with the United States. The new US administration can at least impact trade, multilateralism or the resilience of the institutions and principles that support our liberal democracies, including equality between men and women. This, which may seem negative, can also work as the revulsive that Europe needs to move towards greater political and economic cooperation and keep us as that competitive global actor we want to be. But that will only be possible with the unity of pro-European and pro-democratic forces in this House which, of course, after what we saw yesterday with the European People's Party at the hearing of Vice-President-designate Teresa Ribera, is far from being a reality for some. We'll all suffer.

Madam President, Commissioner, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is blunt in its report on abortion in Poland: with the current abortion law – which the Tusk government has not changed – Poland has discriminated against women, their rights, led to trauma, deaths, fears and threats for specialists and activists. The conclusions of this report are clear: Poland must fully legalize and decriminalize abortion. Until it becomes a reality, it should introduce a moratorium and end all arrests, investigations and criminal proceedings related to health professionals – particularly women – assisting women in need of abortion. Sexual and reproductive health and rights are an integral part of human rights, basic for gender equality, for democracy and for the European project. That is why we Socialists continue to call for sexual and reproductive rights - I insist, rights, because lately I see many groups in this House wanting to remove the word 'rights' from sexual and reproductive rights - to be included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Mr President, Commissioner, we Socialists agree that we need to be more competitive and that innovation must be key to contributing to solutions that make us less dependent and that allow us to develop our industry while maintaining our social model. We also agree that we must remove regulatory and administrative barriers that fragment the single market and limit the inclusion of citizens or small and medium-sized enterprises. But we cannot fall into the simplistic "competitiveness versus regulation" dichotomy. Above all, we cannot justify with administrative simplification measures that set back the great progress made on environmental and social conditionality and – I am glad that the Commissioner for Equality is here – on gender equality as well. We cannot set aside our commitment to gender equality by saying that, in that way, we will have less regulation or less administrative hurdles.

Mr President, Commissioner, gender equality is a principle enshrined in the European Union Treaties. And in order to advance on aid and gender equality, we need to develop a gender equality law policy, but also to bring equality to all policies. And the best way to do it is through budgeting and promoting indicators to truly measure the gender transformative impact of our policies and spending programmes. For the FEMM Committee, the key topic to include is the promotion of gender equality in employment, education and training, with a specific emphasis on addressing the gender pay gap. Of course, we call for increased funding for recent legal advances such as the directive on equality bodies, pay transparency, women on boards, and especially the gender-based violence directive, as well as to reinforce the EU4Health programme to include comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services with access to legal abortion, gender-specific health research and cross-border health services. We must live up to our ideals and fully support this gender equality strategy, especially in this gender backlash moment.

Madam President, the Iraqi Government has tabled a reform of the Personal Status Law which, if approved, would legalize de facto the marriage of girls and adolescents if the family demands it, since it could apply a traditional jurisprudence against the Personal Status Code (something that is already done, on the other hand, outside the law). UNICEF highlights that in 2023, 28% of girls in Iraq were married before their 18th birthday, which is the legal age. Now, with reform looming, it would be legal to marry girls from the age of nine. It could also be the case that two schoolmates had very different luck: one whose family (his father's family, rather) decided to follow this new traditional law and another that could follow the previous Civil Code; One could get married at age nine, while the other could continue quietly in school. And all this, according to its promoters, in the name of freedom and against foreign interference. The same arguments that the anti-equality agenda uses here in Europe and in the rest of the world, because make no mistake: this goes against gender equality and is a global agenda that must be stopped, without any doubt.

Mr President, Commissioner, we have recently heard a lot in this Parliament about the identification of gender-based violence with cultures other than the European one. And that happens, shamefully, while in France the trial of the Pélicot case unfolds: that good neighbor, very European, who for ten years drugged, raped and offered his wife to other men to rape her as well. Up to fifty men from a small village of 6,000 participated in the party, demonstrating the normalization of the culture of rape and the impunity with which these men acted. That is why it is very important what we do here, from the European Parliament and also from the Commission – I take this opportunity to thank Commissioner Helena Dalli for all the work she has done this past legislature –: We pass laws that change those cultural dynamics of power of domination and exploitation. It was very important that we adopt the directive on gender-based violence, which we must now implement, and also that gender-based violence is finally considered a Eurocrime and that, in the near future, we have the possibility to activate the clause to revise the directive and finally define rape as a crime based on the absence of consent. And if not, ask Gisèle Pélicot.

Mr President, a minute of silence is usually a testimony of solidarity, pain or condemnation, it usually symbolizes mourning and collective respect in the face of a death by catastrophe, by accident or by murder, and we do it before football matches, in town squares or in parliaments like this: With these collective silences in public spaces we show our respect for people and for our fundamental values. However, in Afghanistan they enact a law on the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice with which they want to impose a very different silence: the one who terrorizes Afghan girls and women, the one who erases them for the mere fact of being women. By removing their voice, the Taliban dehumanize women, take away one of the essential traits of the human species, because it seems that it was not enough to deny them to show their faces, which is what identifies each of us as the unique person we are. In Europe we cannot remain silent: we need to lend them our voice so that they can get theirs back; Doing nothing is simply unbearable and should fill us with shame.

Mr President, Commissioner, the Net-Zero Industry Act aims to strengthen Europe's manufacturing capacity for technologies that support the decarbonisation of our economies. This law will allow strategic projects to benefit from accelerated permits and financial support, and that will allow us – it will allow Europe – to achieve the objective of climate neutrality by 2050. Our reindustrialisation must be based on innovation, but it must also have a very clear focus on training, skills and quality jobs. All this is part of the social conditionality demanded by socialists. But we must also look towards cohesion, we must group industrial activities in areas of great potential, especially if they coincide with regions that are below the average level of European income, as is the case of Andalusia, with the Andalusian Valley of Green Hydrogen. To this end, initiatives such as PRIs – Partnerships for Regional Innovation – will be essential and will play a key role in this transformation of the European industrial sector that we will promote, but certainly with cohesion and social justice.

Madam President, we are facing more and more cyber-attacks every day in Europe. Last December alone, more than a hundred million. And is that every time we advance in the digitalization of our administrations, our societies or our economies, we become more vulnerable. Every attack on our governments, our hospitals, our critical infrastructure undermines citizens' trust in our democracies. And that's precisely what cybercriminals are looking for. It should come as no surprise that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is undoubtedly a hybrid war, cyberattacks have increased in number and intensity. Therefore, it is more necessary than ever to advance in a European cybersecurity intelligence, in a European industrial ecosystem that requires good regulation, sufficient means, a well-trained population, and, undoubtedly, and most importantly, cooperation between Member States. And all this is contemplated in this European Cyber Solidarity Law that, without a doubt, is a law that responds to the new times, times of digitalization and times in which security also opens its way in the process of European construction. This law deploys a whole gear of cooperation and information exchange, which will allow a more robust digitalisation, which is undoubtedly very important for achieving the economic security, strategic autonomy and integrity of our democracies. I thank all the negotiating teams that have participated in the drafting of this law, without a doubt, against the clock. But it is really urgent to protect our institutions, our critical infrastructures and also our democracies and the European project itself. That is why I ask you, please, to give a positive vote to this Law.

Mr President, Commissioner, the situation in Gaza is appalling and worsening every minute: Israel’s deadly military offensive, the blockade of part of the humanitarian aid by the Netanyahu government, the destruction of infrastructure, including hospitals, death, starvation, human rights violations... Already more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed. Lots of women, boys, girls. No one denies the right to defend themselves against Israel, but the disproportion... Their response is inhumane and contrary to international law, as is depriving the population of essential products – flour, water, medicines – creating, according to the United Nations, catastrophic levels of deprivation and lack of food. Inhumane conditions for women, their menstruation, their births. Aid from the air is not effective and, moreover, has proved to be dangerous. Ground aid must be unblocked, a ceasefire must be put in place, the hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally, and progress must be made towards a solution to the recognition of the Palestinian state. The European Union has to seriously assess whether Israel is complying with the Association Agreement. We can't look anywhere else. It would be indecent to do so.

Mr President, Commissioners, Ministers, the European Semester must establish a framework for social convergence by applying the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights with an adequate level of public investment that guarantees a social shield for our citizens. And it's not just words. Progress also needs to be made on better indicators for monitoring and evaluation not only ex post, but also ex ante, because both macroeconomic policies and all the economic policies we put in place have unequal effects on people who are in an unequal situation. For the Socialists this report is a good report and we thank both the Belgian Presidency and the Spanish Presidency for emphasising social issues. But from the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs we still fall a little short and that is why we have proposed five amendments, five basic points. The first and most important, a social protocol of progress that guarantees the non-return to austerity; the second, tackling the housing crisis; the third, the revision of the Public Procurement Directive to ensure quality jobs and fair conditions; the fourth, to seek new revenue to fight inequality and promote social justice and territorial cohesion; and fifth, the re-issue of NextGenerationEU and the SURE instrument as very good mechanisms to ensure resilience.

Mr President, the existence of violence and harassment at work is a threat to well-being, to equality and also to the proper functioning of companies. And, above all, it is something incompatible with the dignity of the people. ILO Convention No 190, which the Council recommends to the Member States to ratify - something which, I must say, follows the unblocking during the Spanish Presidency and which this Parliament has long called for - promotes a culture of work based on something of as much common sense as mutual respect and human dignity. It is an agreement that seeks to achieve a culture and a work reality free of violence and harassment in an area in which there are asymmetries of power, especially in the case of women, who also suffer discrimination because they are women and even sexual harassment. For socialists, moving forward in a world of work without violence or abuse is at the heart of our policies, of the world for which we have always fought and will continue to fight, especially now when undemocratic winds blow in Europe and the defence of equality and dignity for all people must be unequivocally guaranteed.

Madam President, Commissioner, throughout this legislature we have been working to redefine the relationship between citizenship and the digital world, setting standards that help us navigate the digital transition, ensuring full citizenship – including in the digital world – that leads us to know and exercise rights in the digital environment, but also to manage its risks. The European Digital Identity Framework is an exercise that must go hand in hand with digital literacy and the development of citizens’ digital skills, which is key to bridging the digital divide, non-discrimination – ensuring equal access – and a strong commitment to privacy and cybersecurity, which are essential to building the necessary trust. Socialists want to build a Europe for people, inclusive and in which data and privacy are a public good that must be protected. We need public alternatives for services that, if not, will be offered by big tech companies. In this way, this proposal will make digital services safer, while protecting the rights of citizens and the health of our democracies.

Mr President, an important aspect of the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework is the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform, known as STEP, an instrument to support the development and manufacturing of emerging technologies that are essential for the green and digital transitions in the Union and also for our strategic autonomy. Socialists support this proposal as a test bed for an upcoming sovereign wealth fund that should function as a much-needed incentive to accelerate our transformations and improve our competitiveness. However, the availability of this incentive of European funds must be subject to social conditionality and the creation of quality jobs, aspects on which we socialists have emphasized, especially from the employment perspective. New projects to which funds are awarded should take into account two key variables: firstly, territorial cohesion and, secondly, social conditionality, including gender equality. Only in this way will we be building more and better Europe.

Mr President, Commissioner, Mandela said that education is the most powerful weapon we have to change the world. But education needs knowledge, laws, budget and teachers, who are the ones who ultimately transmit this knowledge. It's an exciting profession, and I tell you from experience. But even the greatest of passions is quenched in the face of precariousness and lack of opportunities. This should not be the case for those who have the task of guiding future generations towards a future full of possibilities. They need decent working conditions and safety. It is impossible to offer a public and quality education if the professionals are demotivated or abandoned, something that happens in many places in Europe, also in my land, in Andalusia, where the mismanagement of the Andalusian Government and its privatization model are restricting the possibilities of access for new teachers and compromising the educational system. I always like to remember that talent is equally distributed regardless of origin. What's not are the opportunities.