What Kim spoke about.

26 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Need to overcome the Council deadlock on the platform workers directive (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear Minister, dear colleagues, we worked hard for more than two years on the Platform Work Directive. New rules that would give workers who drive us around, deliver our food or clean our homes through an app, access to basic rights, such as minimum wages, sick leave. And rules that would give workers insights in why they get a certain task or why they get paid a c…

7 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Abbé Pierre's appeal on addressing homelessness in the context of persisting poverty and social exclusion (debate)

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Mr President, in 1954, war-ridden France was experiencing a serious housing crisis. It was a freezing winter and thousands of people were sleeping on the streets. On 1 February, Abbé Pierre, outraged by the death of a homeless woman that still carried the eviction notice on her, launched a radio appeal for solidarity. Seventy years later, still, every night homeless people are dying in our cities.…

7 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Implementation report on the EU LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025 (debate)

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Madam President, in 2020, 23 years after the founding of our Parliament’s LGBTI intergroup, the European Commission published their very first LGBTIQ equality strategy. And it is truly a victory for our community to see this allyship from the Commission. And some very good first steps were taken. But I’m asking you now, please continue having our backs. Despite the growing backlash, despite the fa…

7 Feb

2024

EN Speech

The fight against hate speech and disinformation: responsibility of social platforms within the Digital Services Act (topical debate)

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– Mr President, how do big platforms make money? Well, they sell ads, or rather, they do everything they can to keep us all glued to our screens for as long as possible so that they can sell more ads and keep their shareholders and investors happy. They use multiple addictive design tools to do so, but their main money-maker is their hyper—personalised algorithm, based on clicks, interaction and t…

6 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Quality traineeships in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, I heard that the European Commission has a fun idea to make sure that young voters vote in the European elections: we should make Taylor Swift tell them to vote. I love a bit of Taylor – absolutely – but here’s another idea for you, bear with me: maybe we could actually listen to young people for once? Because for more than ten years, young people …

17 Jan

2024

EN Speech

Extending the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, freedom of speech doesn’t mean the freedom to spread hate. But increasingly the LGBTIQ+ community, people of colour, migrants and other minorities encounter hate speech, especially online. This hate is fuelled by the far-right groups and amplified by social media algorithms. The purpose of this online hate is clear: they want to silence us and turn minorities into…

15 Jan

2024

EN Speech

The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets (debate)

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Madam President, go for the cheapest option. Ask any public authority what the European rules for buying goods and services dictate, and they think that’s what they have to do. And we are talking about 250 000 public authorities in the EU who spend around EUR 2 trillion per year through public procurement. That’s a two and then 12 zeros. It’s EUR 2000 billion. And we could use this money, which is…

13 Dec

2023

EN Speech

Jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood (debate)

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Mr President, ‘if you are a parent in one country, you are a parent in every country’. Dear colleagues, this quote from Ursula von der Leyen, from 2020’ was maybe one of the most hopeful messages we as the LGBTI+ community got from this Commission because, I hope, we all agree that family life shouldn’t be a privilege, let alone something that we deprive a child of. Unfortunately, right now it doe…

13 Dec

2023

EN Speech

EU strategy to assist young people facing the housing and cost of living crisis (topical debate)

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Madam President, in the last decade, home ownership among people under 30 has sharply declined. And whilst home ownership is not the Holy Grail for ensuring decent and affordable housing for all, we know that the alternative today is relying on an overheated private rental market, where rents have been steadily rising and tenants’ rights and long-term rental contracts are under pressure. At the sa…

12 Dec

2023

EN Speech

Parliament’s call for the right to disconnect - three years on (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, receiving a phone call from your boss while on holidays, or spending time with friends or family on the weekend; sitting on the couch and routinely checking emails, leading to interrupting your series, and then starting to work for half an hour anyway; having messaging apps dominated by work-related chats. It sounds all too familiar for a lot of workers in Europe. On…

12 Dec

2023

EN Speech

Addictive design of online services and consumer protection in the EU single market (A9-0340/2023 - Kim Van Sparrentak) (vote)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, today is a historic day. The European Parliament leads the way and is the first parliament in the world to call for action against addictive design of apps and smartphones. No self-discipline can beat Big Tech’s addictive design tricks we are all subject to on a daily basis. It affects the attention span and brain development from a young age. We see especially yo…

18 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Mental health at work (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, with the help of software, your boss can know exactly how many emails you sent, how many keystrokes you make per hour, even where your gaze is fixed, or whether you’re moving through a warehouse fast enough. The promise of technology at work was that it was going to make our work easier and more fun, and it would free us from boring administration or dull, repetitive…

18 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Fighting disinformation and dissemination of illegal content in the context of the Digital Services Act and in times of conflict (debate)

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Mr President, the past week we have seen unprecedented levels of disinformation on social media about the terrible events in Israel and Palestine, further fuelling fear, confusion and hate among the people affected, but also within Europe. The extreme amount of disinformation is polluting our debates, further sowing polarisation and driving people into opposite sides. Actors intentionally spread d…

5 Oct

2023

EN Speech

The new European strategy for a better internet for kids (BIK+) (debate)

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Madam President, ask any youngster or teenager on the street to show you their screen time, and they easily spent seven hours on their device. While kids are glued to their devices, there’s a big chance they are constantly being shown more shocking content just to keep them online, and even slowly being dragged into funnels of extremism, hate or misogyny. The super addictive design of games and on…

4 Oct

2023

EN Speech

The spread of ‘anti-LGBTIQ’ propaganda bills by populist parties and governments in Europe (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, when I discovered the lesbian TV show in my teenage years, I finally understood I would not only be able to find love with a woman, I would even be able to find a community. When I saw for the first time, I realised I wasn’t the only lesbian with a complicated dating life. Being represented in the media matters. But the far right now wants to take this away from all …

4 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Decent Housing for All (topical debate)

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Madam President, almost three years ago, I stood here as rapporteur when we adopted the report on decent and affordable housing for all. And I’m still proud that the European Parliament put housing as a human rights central. We’ve seen some progress in certain areas: our call to end homelessness by 2030 was adopted by the Commission and Member States in the Lisbon Declaration, and we are now coope…

13 Sep

2023

EN Speech

Regulation of prostitution in the EU: its cross-border implications and impact on gender equality and women’s rights (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, since what sex workers want and deserve is not considered in this report, I have asked them so it is at least mentioned in this Chamber. Sex workers need full social and labour protection. They need access to justice without the need for fear, hesitation or stigmatisation. They need a clear legal status, without discrimination in law or practice. They have the right …

13 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Global Convergence on Generative AI (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Europe wants to be a leader when it comes to ethical AI, and that’s why I’m really happy we are taking the lead in the international context. But Commissioner, I’m also worried: international efforts on voluntary agreements are crucial, but they are also inherently untransparent and they should not be used as an excuse to hollow out regulation. Commissioner, can you pro…

13 Jun

2023

NL Speech

Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

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Mr President, what do we want the future of our society to look like? Let's let computers determine who is right or wrong, who will be a fraud or a criminal, based on where you live, which sports club you are a member of and what profession your parents have? Or do we start from the good in people and give everyone a fair chance? Do we choose a society where people are continuously followed by so-…

19 Apr

2023

EN Speech

Universal decriminalization of homosexuality, in light of recent developments in Uganda (debate)

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Mr President, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. But in many places in the world, our community is far from equal. Even worse, being who we are or loving who we want can put us into jail or can lead us to being sentenced to death. This new law in Uganda is another example of a law that criminalises people for being …

29 Mar

2023

EN Speech

The Rights of children in Rainbow Families and same sex parents in particular in Italy (debate)

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Mr President, ‘You explain to my son that I am not his mother’ – this was written on one of the signs in Milan where thousands of people joined the protest against the restrictions of same-sex parents’ rights. And we should all ask ourselves this. How should a parent explain to their child that in the eyes of the administration they are not a family? How should a parent explain to their child that…

29 Mar

2023

NL Speech

General Product Safety Regulation (debate)

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Mr President, rapporteur, Commissioner, . This also applies to the design and safety of products, because the average white man of 1.80 m and 70 kg is now standard, while a product that is safe for a man, that is certainly not automatically also for a woman. While consumers in Europe need to be confident that the products they buy are safe, this is not the case for half of society time and time ag…

14 Mar

2023

NL Speech

Data Act (debate)

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Mr President, if you brush your teeth with a smart toothbrush, that data is not yours, but the toothbrush manufacturer's. If you want to have your electric car repaired, you have to go to your brand's garage, because they can't get into your car's computer. And your robot vacuum cleaner collects data about your house all day long, which you are not allowed to access. It's pure data hunger under th…

14 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: EU accession (continuation of debate)

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First of all, I never said there was an increase in violence, but there was violence all over the place. What the fact that the Istanbul Convention is not ratified by these other Member States says is that they don’t care. And also, I have said that we need also on top of that, a directive against violence against women. We need to work on every level that we can to ensure that women can be safe i…

14 Feb

2023

NL Speech

Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence: EU accession (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, one in three women in the European Union is a victim of gender-based violence. In the Netherlands, a woman is murdered every eight days, simply because she is a woman. Meanwhile, the European Council has been waiting for six long years to ratify the Istanbul Convention. The Council does not seem ready for the directive against gender-based violence either. All apologies from our gove…