Speeches

– Madam President, thank you very much for this debate, a very positive debate. I believe that people with disabilities have listened to us. What has been achieved under this legislation has been achieved together. We have achieved that the lives of 100 million people with disabilities in Europe will at least improve somewhat. However, this is really only a first step towards equality and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against people with disabilities. We still have a lot of work to do. Allow me, at this point, to thank all the shadow rapporteurs for their cooperation, the Belgian Presidency and the Commission. It was really a collaboration that wasn't seen.

on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. - (DE) Mr President, Commissioner Dali, colleagues, as you know, people with disabilities in the Union are constantly faced with unequal struggles for employment, the fight against poverty and obstacles to their free movement. Member States visiting as part of a short stay did not grant discounts and benefits in the areas of transport, parking spaces, cultural events, leisure centres, sports centres or services, amusement parks and tourism. They have obstructed them wherever they grant the same benefits to their own citizens. This directive aims to eliminate the unequal approach. It is a step towards fulfilling the European Union's contractual obligation of free movement for all Europeans, not just those who are healthy or rich. That is, when I speak to everyone, I also mean people with disabilities. And I say: ‘Finally.’ People with disabilities have been fighting for this legislation for 15 years. I am very pleased that the provisional agreement has been reached between the three institutions of the European Union and is very ambitious and very balanced. In particular, I would like to thank, as a raporteur, all those who have been involved in these negotiations, because from the very beginning, the relationship between the three institutions in terms of this file. As rapporteur, it was absolutely crucial for me that people with disabilities were at the centre of our concerns and efforts at all times. The European Disability Card will serve as proof of recognised disability status across the European Union. It shall entitle its holder to have, during a short stay in another Member State, exactly the same access to special conditions or preferential treatment as that offered by private bodies or public authorities of the Member State concerned to its nationals with disabilities. Similarly, the European Parking Card will allow persons with disabilities to have access to the same parking conditions as those available in another Member State for their citizens. During the negotiations, Parliament made some improvements to the Commission's original text, although I must say that the text that emerged from the European Commission was very good in itself. Firstly, the European Parliament succeeded in extending the scope of the laissez-passer beyond short stays of up to three months to include participants in European Union mobility schemes. This means that, for example, people with disabilities studying abroad under the Erasmus programme will be able to use the card for the entire duration of their studies abroad. This is a big deal. Parliament also ensured that the disability card had to be issued and renewed free of charge. This was not entirely self-evident for all the Member States of the European Union; on the part of the Council, we have seen how they are defending themselves. Within one year of the application of the Directive, the Commission will assess any remaining shortcomings relating to the free movement of persons with disabilities, so that this assessment is taken into account when deciding on further action by the European Union in this area, and I firmly believe that those further steps will follow. Member States can decide whether to issue a parking card free of charge or for a fee, but if they choose to charge fees, Parliament has again introduced an insurance policy that any fees may not exceed administrative costs.

Madam President, we, not the Roma, celebrate International Roma Day. There is nothing to celebrate in segregated settlements. They live in social isolation, without drinking water, without electricity, without gas. Their children are dying of malnutrition. The older ones fetch toluene so they don't feel hungry. The vast majority of Roma are recipients of benefits in material need, but not of old-age pensions, because they do not even live to receive an old-age pension. This is the reality in Slovakia, where Roma are the largest minority. They face open discrimination. We send their children to special schools where they barely learn to read and write. They have no education or qualifications. Politicians do nothing for them. Their hands are tied by racism or fear that if they move their finger for the Roma, they will lose the votes of the majority. It is good that we are adopting resolutions at European level, but the Member States are ignoring them. The only solution is to make the absorption of EU funds conditional on Member States with marginalised Roma communities starting to address the situation in Roma settlements.

Madam President, Robert Fico is evil. He is a dangerous extremist and misinformer intertwined with dangerous people. Many are accused of serious crimes. In order to protect them and himself, including the commissioners of the murders of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová, he is dismantling the pillars of the rule of law, the prosecution, the courts and the media. 1.3 million Slovaks voted for Fico and his coalition, but the rest of the Slovaks became his hostages the day after the elections. Fico's interference in the character of our state drives many beyond the borders and many into the streets to protest against it. Many Slovaks turn to the European institutions to stop Fico. Today, Robert Fico called Slovak MEPs traitors, the opposition ones. He was afraid of this debate and that he and his oligarchs would lose the EU funds. My Slovak colleagues and I love our country. It is therefore our duty to do everything we can to protect her from a prime minister who diverts us from democracy and drives us closer to where we once were during swordsmanship. To the black hole on the map of Europe.

Madam President, we are one of the richest regions in the world and yet we are starving millions of our children. In Roma settlements in several Member States, young children fetch toluene purchased by their parents so that they do not feel hungry. They live in shacks without drinking water and wade their ankles in their own and dog's excrement because they don't have sewerage. Many of them end up segregated in special schools and never learn to read or write. We became convinced of this during our European Parliament delegation to Roma settlements in Slovakia. Some European Commissioners were so shocked by our findings that they asked me how it was possible that Slovakia had been hiding this for so long. We didn't hide anything. Quantitative statistics on paper are often sufficient for the Commission alone. Children can be emotionally talked about, but politicians prefer to take care of retirees because, unlike children, retirees can vote. It is the EU's duty to force Member States and populist politicians to invest in children. Mandatory allocations for the Child Guarantee and action plans are not enough, as they are still just promises and words on paper. We need real monitoring, no quantitative statistics. The Child Guarantee has five million specific faces, and we must ensure that every one of those children's faces is improved by the governments of the Member States.

Madam President, what does Malta look like six years after Daphne Galizia's death? Is there less corruption? How many of the corrupt politicians Daphne wrote about ended up in jail? What did Daphne pay for with her life? The Slovak election was recently won by Smer with a whole bunch of politicians, whose corruption was written by Ján Kuciak. That's why he was murdered. Five years after his death, we will again look at the face of Robert Fico as prime minister in Slovakia. He will go to Brussels for official meetings, eat lambs and discuss EU funds that his oligarchs are already waiting for. How long will we turn a blind eye to high-level corruption in the Member States in the EU? Until the news of another Daphne and another John hits us. Not only Hungary and Poland have long been a symbol of breaches of the rule of law. Among us are states with very high levels of corruption in the highest places where investigative journalists could be murdered. Orban's been laughing at us for a while. Let's not let Robert Fico start laughing at us.

Mr President. We face many crises and clearly fail to build a social Europe in which no one can be left behind. Ninety-five and a half million Europeans face social exclusion and poverty. One of the largest vulnerable groups is women, single-parent households, people with disabilities or people from marginalised groups. Thirty to fifty percent of these people do not receive any or insufficient support, despite all Member States having a minimum income scheme in place. The minimum income must reach all people in need of such assistance, who find themselves in need, without any bureaucratic obstacles. The state is only as strong as the weakest of its articles, and the European Union is as strong as the Member States, and not just the people who live in the Member States. I therefore believe that the European Union must take a leading role in the fight against social exclusion. At the same time, however, it must respect the competences of the Member States.

Madam President, we are flying to the moon and we are about to make Mars a holiday destination. Today, artificial intelligence is writing a diploma thesis for students. Yet the number of cases of violence against women continues to increase. And yet we still have countries that are afraid of the definition of gender and gender-based violence. We even have MEPs from Slovakia who are haunting gender ideology. In countries that have rejected the Istanbul Convention, time has stalled. There, they do not even collect statistics and data on violence against women. The European Union must oppose such return, the Council must take a decision on gender-based violence as a crime under Article 83, and together we must put an end to violence against women.

Madam President, we are building a social Europe in which no one can be left behind. We have 18 million children living in poverty. This is a state of emergency to which we must respond, both at European level and at national and regional level. One in three families with children are at risk of poverty in Slovakia due to the crisis and inflation. The worst is single-parent households that have more children. Poverty is a risk factor that increases the likelihood that a child will experience poor nutrition, poor health care, poor education, crime, violence within the family or other pathological phenomena. According to scientists, poverty reduces a child's chances of fulfilling his or her potential and living a quality life. The Child Guarantee is an excellent tool for improving the quality of life of children living in poverty. Member States allocated ESF+ money to this, Slovakia even allocated more than 14%. Now the most important thing is to make sure that the resources really reach every single child in need. I consider this to be the most important role in which the European institutions must play a key role and not rely solely on the political will of national governments and politicians, which children tend to overlook because children are not yet able to vote.

Madam President, "We are looking for Blažena. Blažena Kováčová with her blind son. Can you tell me where they live?” – “You have to turn left at the house where the two children were frozen in winter.” ‘Oh, I have no toes or hands.’ – ‘What happened to you?’ – ‘I have been frozen.’ “You are 13 years old and you will soon become a mother. Do you understand what happened?” – “Yes, that uncle told me I was pretty.” “You have three children, a sick wife. You're young and healthy, but you don't work. Why?’ – ‘Because I am a gypsy from a settlement and I have to heat the house. My kids and my wife are going to freeze up. Who will hire me if I have to put at least three times a day in the oven?’ – ‘What are you burning?’ – ‘Everything I find. From wood to tyres.’ These are a few short dialogues from Roma settlements that I attended many years ago as a journalist. In November 2021, I returned to Slovak Roma settlements as an MEP, as I led a delegation of the European Parliament there. What we found in the villages far exceeded all our expectations. We found thousands of people without electricity, without connection to a public source of drinking water, without sewerage. In Trebišov, a town of 23,000 people in eastern Slovakia, 7.5 thousand Roma live in a segregated settlement, wading in their own feces and in the feces of retarded dogs during the rainy autumn. Like in slums. They don't have sewerage, they don't have electricity, they don't have gas. There is only one source of drinking water for seven and a half thousand people. There are thousands and thousands of tons of toxic dumps all around, infesting entire territories. During the day, the dumps devour the wretched dogs, at night the rats climb out of them, which then devour the children in their sleep. Children have visible scars on their faces, they have scabies and are hungry. The people in the village were so apathetic that they turned into their own shadows that we went through. The Healthy Regions project co-financed by the European Social Fund, which replaced the state in settlements during the pandemic, alerted us to the growing phenomenon of fetching children. They fetch toluene so they don't feel hungry. At the same time, we were alerted to the extremely high mortality rate of children in the settlement. They report 30 deaths per 1,000 newborns, which is the level of developing countries. These children are dying from malnutrition, from respiratory diseases. When it is cold in the shacks, Roma burn what comes under their hand, for example, toxic waste from landfills. In Slovakia, it has become a state policy to include children from settlements in special schools. Their social deprivation and their ignorance of the state language are often confused with mental retardation in school maturity tests. And thus, for years, the state has created through its own segregation policy the xth generation of people with basic education, who are completely dependent on state aid and who are unable to succeed in the open labour market. The European Commission is leading against this, against Slovakia, infringement. So far, nothing has changed significantly. During the past Slovak corrupt governments, which literally tunnelled the funds of the European Union, money for marginalized Roma communities was distributed to any organizations attached to the government octopus. For example, for Ikebana retraining courses for the long-term unemployed or money was given to municipal football clubs to teach Roma without basic education digital skills. For a lot of European money, there were a lot of abominations that brought very little added value to marginalised Roma communities. The current government has not eliminated bureaucracy from the system of drawing EU funds, so Slovakia has one of the lowest drawdowns ever. Of the original allocation to marginalised Roma communities from the old budget, we still have 70% unspent. There is a lack of political will at both governmental and local level, and tensions between settlements and the majority population are increasing. Because just as it's hard for people living in settlements, it's hard for people living near them. Investing in Roma settlements has become so unpopular in our region that we prefer to let money from European funds lapse. 300 settlements in Slovakia do not have access to public water supply networks, 650 settlements do not have access to sewerage, 50 segregated Roma settlements do not have any infrastructure or even an asphalt road. According to UNDP, less than half of all Roma households in Slovakia have public tap water, and a significant proportion of them have to take water from a stream or river. Fundamental EU directives on water and wastewater disposal and Article 34 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights are not respected. As a result, there is an increased incidence of various infectious diseases in settlements, both among children and among adults. The phenomenon of children having children between the ages of 12 and 15 is more prevalent in settlements. There are cases of child prostitution. I have described to you the situation in Slovakia, but the same is happening in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people whose living conditions are comparable to those of people from developing countries. This is a European disgrace, this is a European problem. We cannot build "social Europe where no one can be left behind"Letting children in the 21st century die from malnutrition and respiratory diseases in the heart of Europe. The last thing I want to tell you is that... The Chair took the floor.

Mr President, a war is raging in Ukraine, and I know that every day we are dealing with how to stop Putin and save lives, and it is very difficult now to draw your attention to what is happening right here in the European Union in our Member States. But a few kilometres east of our institutional bubble, there are separate and segregated Roma settlements in different Member States. And in them, despite the fact that people live there in peace, children die every day from malnutrition, from respiratory diseases, after nights they are bitten by rats. They have scabies, they have lice, they are cold and they are hungry. Many teenage girls resort to prostitution just to eat. Many children are given by their own parents to fetch toluene or glue so that they do not feel hungry. In many Roma settlements, thousands of people live without access to drinking water, without gas and without electricity. They do not have access to quality education, they do not have access to the labour market, they do not have access to employment, they do not have access to healthcare. I wonder if this is compatible with the social Europe that we are talking about here every day. We have not blamed all this, colleagues, on any studies, we have seen this with our own eyes during the European Parliament delegation to Roma settlements in the Slovak Republic, but it is not otherwise in Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic or Hungary. These are millions of people, Europeans, whose living conditions are incompatible with what we here, in our Brussels bubble, call a social Europe in which no one can be left behind. This is a clear example of a persistent failure to respect fundamental human rights and the rule of law, not only for people in settlements, but also for people living near them. Those strategies that we write on paper clearly do not fulfil their purpose in practice, and I ask where all those billions of euros of EU funds have gone, when there is no sewerage in the settlements, and in the rain people are waving their ankles in their own feces. Policies towards the inclusion of Roma from segregated settlements are failing because there is no political will at Member State level to address their problems and integrate Roma into society. Not only Roma suffer from this, but also non-Roma, and we should stop looking at it alibistically.

Mr President, health and safety at work is a huge topic, especially in the face of the huge challenges ahead. This is the green and digital transition. But also because it affects a huge number of people. That is 170 million workers within the European Union. And although we have made progress over the last 25 years, more than 3300 fatal accidents at work were recorded in the European Union in 2018. And 3.1 million non-fatal accidents. In addition, of course, there are about two hundred thousand deaths from occupational diseases every year. These are huge numbers. This is a great human suffering. Not to mention the Covid-19 pandemic, it has, of course, shown the vulnerability of workers on non-standard contracts, including workers working digitally or through platforms, or, as Commissioner Schmid has already mentioned, people who are self-employed. Therefore, maintaining and improving the level of protection of these workers is indeed a huge topic in the context of the green and digital transitions. I welcome the introduction of a zero mortality approach in relation to accidents at work and occupational diseases in the Commission’s strategic framework for 2021-27. However, I think that the strategic framework could have been more concrete and focused on implementing effective measures, and I also think it is very important for the Commission to put forward concrete proposals corresponding to all those ambitions and to draw up a plan to reduce the number of accidents at work and deaths at work. At the same time, I think it is absolutely essential for Member States to focus more on the implementation of prevention strategies in the future, and prevention is expensive. To do this, they need money, that is, there will need to be more and more financial resources being released to the Member States. I like that the Commission has increased its ambitions in the fight against cancer. I would like to point out here, as my colleague before me, that the directive on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens and mutagens is constantly updated, within an ambitious time-frame, as we agreed in our other trilogues when it was revised, because we need new limit values for at least 25 other priority substances. At the same time, new limits for lead, asbestos and cobalt. We should certainly not forget about persons with disabilities and young workers in this context. Therefore, ambitious guidelines must be clearly provided to Member States and employers.

Mr President, the best way to help Ukrainian refugees is to stop the war in their own country and to deal with this criminal Putin once and for all. Putin is a war criminal, and I think decent countries should not be trading with war criminals. With every penny for Russian oil and Russian gas we pay, we buy Russians the weapons to kill civilians. Ukraine is buying us time and pays for it with the lives of its own citizens, and we cannot spend this precious time trading with Russia. Russia must bleed economically, and it looks like the only way it will bleed is when we stop the oil and gas supplies to Europe and to the US. Then it is up to the Russian people to decide whether they will be able to continue with a senseless war or they will deal with the criminal Putin once and for all. Slava Ukraini!

Mr President, I have had the honour of conducting dialogues on the part of the European Parliament and of representing one fantastic negotiating team of the European Parliament. First of all, I would like to thank all my colleagues very much. I think we have achieved the incredible thing of including reprotoxic substances in the scope of the directive on the protection of workers from the effects of carcinogens and mutagens at work, and of ensuring that all these workers, especially in the health sector, are much more protected when working with dangerous substances than they have been up to now. That's a big deal. This is a huge achievement for the European Parliament. All this time of difficult negotiations, we all had 12.7 million workers in mind, including 7.3 million nurses who are exposed to carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic dangerous drugs almost every day at work. We all know that, according to expert studies, these employees are three times more likely to develop malignant diseases, such as breast cancer or haematopoietic cancer. And nurses specifically exposed to citotoxic drugs are twice as likely to have miscarriages, have huge fertility problems, and have congenital disabilities of their children. That is why I say that this is a huge success for the European Parliament and all these people, and I firmly believe that today it will be crowned with massive support in this plenary. I call on all colleagues to do this because we are all doing this for the health of the people on the ground whose health we are trying to protect.

– Mr President, Commissioner Schmit, dear colleagues, it is a great honour to open this plenary session with the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL Committee) oral question on the European social security pass, since this is a topic that concerns millions of mobile citizens and workers within the European Union. The European Parliament has been calling on the European Commission since 2014 to present a proposal for a European social security number so that we can facilitate the mobility of workers, combat social fraud and simplify administrative procedures. The Commission had announced in its work programme for 2018 that it would come up with a legislative proposal on such a European social security number, but in early 2021 we learned that this project was abandoned, which came as a surprise to us. Instead, the Commission announced that it would launch a pilot project to explore launching a digital European social security pass by 2023. So this question for oral answer and the draft motion for a resolution which will be put to the vote on Wednesday: we would like to get more information about the social security pass and understand why the Commission abandoned the project of launching a European social security number. Allow me, therefore, to ask you the following questions. First of all, for Parliament it is very important to know and understand the reasons why the Commission abandoned working on the European social security number and replaced it instead with a pilot project on a digital pass. On several occasions this year, a member of the Committee for Employment and Social Affairs therefore asked the Commission to give Parliament access to all relevant documents and evidence on which it had based its decision to discontinue the exploration and introduction of an ESSN. I’m very pleased to announce that, in anticipation of today’s oral question and the debate, the Commission reacted to these repeated requests for transparency and explanations, and at the end of last week, I actually received a letter, together with the relevant internal documents and evidence that will allow us to better understand why the project of introducing a European social security number was abandoned. My first question, in which I wanted to ask the Commission to give Parliament access to all relevant documents and evidence on which it has based its decision to discontinue the exploration of introducing an ESSN, has thus already been answered. But I would still be grateful if the Commission could explain again the reasons why the European social security number was replaced with the digital pass. My second question is related to timing. Earlier this year in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the Commission announced that it would launch a pilot project to explore launching a European social security pass by 2023. We believe that a legislative proposal for such a pass is urgently needed. Therefore, we would like to ask the Commission if the timeline for the proposal can be moved from 2023 to 2022, to improve the chances of reaching an agreement within the current legislature. My third question is related to real-time verification, which is a very important point for the European Parliament. Can the Commission explain how it will ensure that the social security pass will enable real-time verification of workers’ place of work, place of employment, employment relationship, identity and standardised social security benefits provisions and relevant certificates, as set out in Regulation 883 on the coordination of social security systems? My fourth question: it is also very important for us that the European social security pass covers all mobile citizens and workers. Can the Commission confirm that the pass will indeed cover all mobile citizens and workers, including those ones who are self-employed, as well as mobile third-country nationals? In some Member States, national cards or comparable instruments for labour law purposes exist already, and we ask ourselves how they will be linked to the European social security pass once created. Can the Commission explain how it plans to investigate the feasibility of allowing Member States to use the European social security pass to draw on information made available from national cards or comparable instruments for labour law purposes where they already exist? Can the Commission also commit to assessing which other areas of EU labour law could be included within the scope of the European social security pass? Data protection: it’s another question – another very important issue for the European Parliament – so I would be grateful if you could explain how the Commission will make sure that the EU data protection rules are strictly applied so that data is only available to the worker and the national authorities concerned. My last question is about the connection between the European social security pass and other tools and initiatives. There are already several initiatives and digitalisation processes at European level which concern the area of social security coordination, such as prior notification for posted workers, etc. Can the Commission explain how these digital processes and tools will relate to the European social security pass?

Madam President, what they approved in Texas is one inhumane law that does not belong to the 21st century, and anyone who respects human rights at least a little must condemn it. I'm glad we do too. But let's see what's going on right under our noses, and not just in Poland. Ultraconservative parties and political populists are chasing their own political preferences to hate LGBT and dictate to women's wombs. In Slovakia, parliamentarians have just moved to the second reading of the law, which is supposed to significantly complicate women's access to abortion. Even without it, we have entire districts where women do not have legal abortions even for medical reasons, because doctors exercise conscientious objection. This trend poses a real threat to women's health and tramples on their constitutional law and on their rights as enshrined in international conventions. This is a clear contradiction with respect for the rule of law. It is not enough to deal with only Poland and Texas. We must stop this ultra-conservative madness and the pursuit of women's rights, which are also slowly capturing modern Europe.

Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner Schmit, I don’t know where you get all the energy actually at this time, you know. I’m a big admirer. Ladies and gentlemen, the economic crisis that was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the lives of all of us, especially on the vulnerable groups. It has led to deepening inequalities. It has led to increasing numbers of people that are at risk of poverty. It has shed a light on existing imbalances and accelerated dangerous social trends, especially on the vulnerable groups. This past year we have, fortunately, slowly started recovering from the detrimental social and economic effects, but joint efforts and strong political will are still needed to ensure a just and equitable recovery that will leave no one behind in the social Europe that we all want to create and build. Therefore, I ask the Commission, how will you work together with the Member States to address the social consequences of the pandemic, protect the rights and improve the situation of the most vulnerable groups? Addressing efficiently, and successfully, the consequences is, however, not possible without quality disaggregated data. How will the Commission work to ensure the timely collection of quality disaggregated data on the consequences of the pandemic on the employment and also on the social situation within the European Union, especially among the most vulnerable groups? Important financial and political instruments have already been available and introduced, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and, of course, the mechanism SURE. It is, however, not enough to make those instruments only available, they have to be properly implemented and they have to be properly monitored. Therefore, I would like to know how will the Commission ensure that national recovery and resilience plans are duly implemented and contribute to the objectives that were stated in the RRF regulation, in particular in terms of quality, employment, poverty reduction and upward social and economic convergence? Furthermore, how will the Commission evaluate and monitor the implementation of the impact of the mechanism SURE? The development of skills and competences, in line with labour market needs, is also essential in the context of EU recovery and also with the digital and green transition. So how will the Commission further coordinate and support the development of those skills and of those competences? Finally, let me turn to the future, because future crises for various reasons are unavoidable and we need to be prepared for them. Therefore, my final question to the Commission today would be, how will you work with the Member States to improve EU actions to enhance the social resilience and sustainability of the recovery of the European economies and our better response to the future crises?

Mr President, thank you very much for giving me the floor. Dear colleagues, we all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the EU aviation sector, with the loss of more than two thirds of traffic and many many jobs, as carriers seek to maintain viability and reduce the costs. Despite the state aid schemes, most of the airlines are still struggling to return to pre-pandemic activity levels. Despite some improvements regarding the travel restrictions and the vaccination campaign, it is feared that the difficulties that the airline sectors are facing could lead to more job cuts and the further downgrading of terms and conditions. Therefore, it is our duty to ensure fair competition. It is our duty to ensure that companies receiving public financial support fully respect workers’ rights and labour laws. Against this background, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs has the following questions to the Commission. Taking into account the evaluation of Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 how will the Commission ensure effective enforcement of applicable EU legislation? What legal measures are being considered to ensure a level playing field and legal certainty for air crews, including the requirement to know which labour law is applicable to air crews? Second, when will the Commission put forward a revision of Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 in order to ensure decent working and employment conditions in the aviation sector? Third, when will the Commission publish the findings of the ad hoc group of Member States’ experts on aviation and labour law? How will it remedy the lack of reliable data on the number of aircrew jobs, outsourced jobs and agency staff?