What Kim spoke about.

18 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Revelations of Uber lobbying practices in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, the Uber files confirmed what we already knew. Uber has been able to roll out its business model by operating illegally, dodging labour law and employing aggressive lobby tactics. It was the plan all along to squeeze drivers for Uber to become profitable. With this scandalous behaviour, Uber has become a market leader in the platform economy, and paved the way for other companies to …

18 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Terrorist threats posed by far-right extremist networks defying the democratic constitutional order (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Capitol Hill, Brasília, the Reichsbürgers and Forum voor Democratie – a dangerous global far right is moving from their social media rabbit holes into the offline world, and they all promote the same harmful narratives based on disinformation, targeting women, targeting LGBTI people, targeting people of colour, and trying to overthrow democratic institutions. The spread…

17 Jan

2023

NL Speech

Consumer protection in online video games: a European Single Market approach (debate)

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Mr President, 20 years ago, gaming studios tried to develop a game that was as fun and challenging as possible, so you bought it. But now they are mainly trying to make a game as addictive as possible. Innovation does not always lead to improvement for consumers. We see this in the gaming industry. Because where in the past I could finally buy Rollercoaster Tycoon after long savings and then play …

16 Jan

2023

EN Speech

30th Anniversary of the Single Market (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, when looking at the past 30 years, we can all agree that the single market has been essential for European integration. Businesses and consumers have benefited and it has strengthened the EU’s position in the world. But please, let’s not only congratulate ourselves. It’s essential that we’re also self-critical on how the single market project has left many people beh…

14 Dec

2022

EN Speech

Tackle the cost of living crisis: increase pay, tax profits, stop speculation (topical debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, people in Europe are suffering. They’re sitting in ice-cold rooms, are unable to feed their families and are increasingly at risk of becoming homeless. If we want to be a Union that works for people, our response to the energy crisis has to go further than security of supply and the necessary reforms of the energy market. We need to take action for the peop…

23 Nov

2022

EN Speech

Legal protection for rainbow families exercising free movement, in particular the Baby Sara case (debate)

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Mr President, what we want as the LGBTI community is equality: to be treated as equals in our society and to be equal by law. Whilst this may be portrayed by some conservatives as the end of the world, for us these are lifesaving laws. Imagine your child needs a lifesaving operation, but you as a parent are not allowed to give consent for this operation, because you travelled to another country th…

18 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Mental health (debate)

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Mr President, young LGBTIQ+ people are often struggling with their mental health. Numbers show that they are four times more likely to be bullied in schools and are five times more likely to commit suicide because they do not feel accepted and have to deal with hate speech and violence. What definitely doesn’t help is that we increasingly see hate and disinformation being spread about our communit…

17 Oct

2022

EN Speech

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (debate)

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Madam President, colleagues, Commissioner, the projections show us that during the coming winter, people in this Union will die from hunger and cold, and more and more people will lose their home and fall into extreme poverty. Also, homelessness has life—threatening consequences. But, so far in this House, we have seen more support for companies struggling with the rising energy costs than support…

5 Oct

2022

NL Speech

The Dutch childcare benefit scandal, institutional racism and algorithms (debate)

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Mr President, algorithms do exactly what they have to do, and that is dangerous. Imagine: a tax administration is tasked by the government to tackle fraud as hard as possible and this must be done as efficiently as possible by means of automation. According to the tax authorities, it is most efficient to address people with a low income or migrant background. On that basis, the service decides to …

5 Oct

2022

NL Speech

Countering the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda of Putin’s European cronies (topical debate)

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Mr President, anti-democratic parties are deliberately spreading disinformation online: in Ukraine to cause confusion and break morals, but also in the rest of Europe to divide our societies and erode democracies. Big tech's algorithms and revenue models go well on extreme content such as hate and disinformation. This is using pro-Russian forces against us. Last week, EU DisinfoLab unveiled a mass…

4 Oct

2022

EN Speech

Radio Equipment Directive: common charger for electronic devices (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, Commissioner, finally, after more than 10 years of waiting for codes of conduct and goodwill of businesses, we are now setting a standard for a common charger in the EU. Today, finally, we are putting the interests of the environment and consumers above the interests of big tech companies through solid legislation. This achievement shows that we as the EU can set …

3 Oct

2022

EN Speech

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - Serious cross-border threats to health (debate)

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Madam President, dear colleagues. I would like to comment in particular on procurement, which is within the IMCO remit. I welcome the provisions where our IMCO opinion was improved in a practical way. For example, the EU-exclusive procurement, meaning that countries would not be able to negotiate with different manufacturers in parallel. For this issue, a great compromise was found, which is that …

5 Jul

2022

EN Speech

Mental health in the digital world of work (debate)

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Mr President, dear rapporteur, dear Commissioner, imagine going to work at Zara. You enter the shop in the morning, pick up a tablet, put an earpiece in and, for hours on end, you are tracked and have an algorithm tell you exactly what you need to do. And if you don’t do it fast enough, because a customer asks you something, this might lead to not getting your contract renewed. It might sound futu…

4 Jul

2022

NL Speech

Digital Services Act - Digital Markets Act (debate)

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Mr President, for twenty years we have allowed large tech companies to grow almost indefinitely under the guise of innovation. Now these companies are so powerful that they pose a threat to our society and our democracy. Google's and Facebook's algorithms show us what makes their shareholders the most profit. They know all about us and have found that presenting us with personalized hate and disin…

8 Jun

2022

NL Speech

Global threats to abortion rights: the possible overturn of abortion rights in the US by the Supreme Court (debate)

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– Thank you. Yes, I have a question for Mr Ruissen. We happen to come from the same region and a few years ago they saw the need to set up a foundling room. This is because there are so many people who are afraid to have an abortion, but ultimately cannot keep the child, for financial or other reasons. And I still wonder how you see the protection of a child after birth if that child actually has …

8 Jun

2022

NL Speech

Global threats to abortion rights: the possible overturn of abortion rights in the US by the Supreme Court (debate)

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Mr President, millions in the US are threatening to lose their right to abortion. And let's just say it again: A ban on abortion does not lead to fewer abortions, but only to more unsafe abortions. But what I notice is that I'm not even surprised anymore. Angry, angry, I am. But no longer surprised, because time and time again we see that the global ultraconservative agenda, funded by major lender…

5 May

2022

EN Speech

The impact of the war against Ukraine on women (debate)

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Madam President, dear Commissioner, we have all heard terrible reports in the past weeks about Russian troops using rape as a weapon of war against Ukrainian women who have stayed behind. And we’ve also heard heart—breaking stories about pregnant Ukrainians fleeing to Poland who are in need of an abortion there, but discover that they cannot get it because of the de facto abortion ban. Moreover, t…

3 May

2022

EN Speech

Artificial intelligence in a digital age (debate)

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Madam President, today we as a Parliament send a strong signal. We need a legislative proposal to protect workers when AI is deployed at work. And it’s about time we had legislation to protect workers from becoming robots. For too long, when talking about AI and the future of work, we worried about humans going to be replaced by technology. But the reality is that technology hasn’t replaced people…

7 Apr

2022

NL Speech

Right to repair (debate)

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Do you have to recharge your phone at lunchtime? Is there a crack in your screen, or can you no longer download apps because your device no longer allows updates after a few years? Buying a new phone is your only option. Phones are made in such a way that they are difficult to repair. If possible, buying a new one is often even cheaper than having it repaired. This is, of course, crazy for words. …

16 Feb

2022

EN Speech

One youth, one Europe (topical debate)

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Mr President, the last two years, schools were closed, social events cancelled, and many young people had to start their education or first jobs from their bedroom behind a screen. And that is why declaring 2022 the European Year of Youth can’t just be about using the marketing potential of young people to make the EU look good, it has to bring real improvements in their lives. And most of all, we…

20 Jan

2022

EN Speech

Empowering European Youth: post-pandemic employment and social recovery (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Secretary of State, and dear youth of Europe, the COVID pandemic has impacted everyone, but the impact on the lives of young people cannot be underestimated. A big reduction in social contacts, not going out with friends and not enjoying school with your peers, crucial moments and connections that will shape your life, which were all stalled. And only time will tell how…

19 Jan

2022

EN Speech

Digital Services Act (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, the storming of the Capitol after the widespread misinformation about elections, a surge in radicalisation and extremism driven by conspiracies, and a stark rise in threats against journalists and politicians in the Netherlands – even at night at their homes: while we watch the disastrous effects of the spread of hate and misinformation online slowly unfold and seep into real life, w…

14 Dec

2021

EN Speech

Digital Markets Act (debate)

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Madam President, Google Search and YouTube more or less decide which information reaches us. Google Maps and Waze on our Android phones follow exactly where we go. Our every heartbeat and step is monitored by Fitbit and we send our kids to Google schools where Google software can track and decide how we learn. And all this information goes to one and the same company. A small number of Big Tech co…

13 Dec

2021

EN Speech

Combating gender-based violence: cyberviolence (continuation of debate)

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Madam President, gender—based violence is a systemic problem, deeply rooted in our society. But the online world has opened new doors for hate and violence to spread rapidly, amplified by platforms’ algorithms. And this has devastating effects. Young girls commit suicide after intimate photos have been shared, female politicians receive death threats after speaking out and women withdraw from our …

25 Nov

2021

NL Speech

The International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and the State of play on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention (continuation of debate)

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Mr President, every week, 50 women in Europe die from violence simply because they are women. Transgenders are beaten up in the street and killed. Women are drugged in the pub and then brutally raped. Young girls commit suicide for sharing intimate images with a boy, which he then throws online without permission. Mrs. Dalli, we're in a pandemic, and I'm not just talking about COVID. Every minute …