Speeches

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 that doesn’t recognise your parenthood. Today, the LGBTI Intergroup had the honour to hear first—hand a horror story of two mothers who can’t make their baby girls meet their grandfathers because of discriminatory administrative hurdles. And the European Court of Justice has already ruled that Bulgarian authorities have to give baby Sara a birth certificate. But now, while she’s almost three, it still hasn’t happened. That’s why we urge the European Commission to take action. We need to make sure national authorities listen to these rulings of the European Court of Justice and get children out of this administrative limbo, but we also need to move fast on new legislation for the baby Saras of this world and all our rainbow families, because what we want is equality.

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 community on social media. This hate is fuelled by far—right groups and amplified by social media algorithms. Worse, these lies about our community are then repeated in the political arena, also in this House, legitimising hate. Online violence leads to offline violence. We see that with the increase in bomb threats against gender clinics and with the devastating recent shooting outside a queer bar in Bratislava, where two people lost their lives. We have to do better for our LGBTIQ+ community. We need to do everything that we can to stop the amplification of hate and disinformation online by banning these polarising algorithms. But we also have to collectively stand up against this hate being legitimized offline, especially in the political arena. Let me be clear: if we tolerate hate against minorities, we tolerate the erosion of our values and our democracies, and we accept that young generations will grow up feeling unwanted and unloved. We have to do better.

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 for citizens. And this abstract number of almost 100 people in the EU at risk of poverty in reality means freezing rooms, empty lunchboxes, and losing your home. That’s why I ask our European leaders, when discussing how to respond to the energy crisis, to look beyond mere numbers and to take action for people. Make sure we won’t lose sight of ending homelessness by 2030, and make sure no one will die from the cold this winter. Decide on a European moratorium on evictions and a moratorium on being cut off from energy.

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 build such an algorithm. And this algorithm does exactly what it needs to do. It finds so-called fraudsters, especially with a migrant background or low income. For example, the Dutch government destroyed the lives of 70 000 children and their parents. No one could explain to their parents what was going on or why certain decisions were made. Officials blindly followed the computers, because algorithms must be right. An important lesson from the surcharge scandal is that digitalisation without standards and rules can have life-destroying consequences. Fortunately, we see this in Europe. With the first AI law in the world, I want to make sure that a new supplement affair can never happen again, but then we have to dare to take action. As a negotiator for the AI Act, I am committed to strengthening human rights in the use of algorithms. We must prohibit the use of algorithms to classify people as criminals or fraudsters based on their personal data. We must ensure that systems do not discriminate. We need to introduce a human rights test, so that we have to look at how we use algorithms. People deserve transparency and the systems need to be designed in such a way that we can see what goes wrong. And people should never, ever again, stand empty-handed in front of a computer, with a strong right to explanation and mandatory human oversight. Let us learn from this terrible scandal and now intervene with ambitious rules.

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 massive pro-Russian disinformation operation through bots and paid ads that earned Facebook more than a ton. So we are dragged further and further into a bubble of extremism, with danger to our security, and meanwhile big tech becomes smilingly rich. The solution is simple: We need to tackle big tech and get rid of personal, polarizing algorithms. But any decisive action to stop them goes too far for the European Commission and right-wing parties, and we can no longer stand by and watch this system facilitate Putin and the erosion of our democracy. It's time to intervene.

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 standards for a sustainable digital future. So why not make sure that the whole digital transition is sustainable from the start? To my colleagues here and to the Commission: we do not have another 10 years to wait for voluntary agreements until we realise that we need clear environmental standards for electronic devices or, for example, data centres. We are in a climate crisis. We need to steer the digital transition to truly twin the green transition and make sure it doesn’t harm people, but benefits them and the environment from the start.

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 only after assessment it is decided if it is an EU-exclusive procurement. And this makes sense, since the EU exclusive procurement would be beneficial regarding counter-measures involving plenty of options on the market, for example with tests, but would not be beneficial for other measures where there might be a shortage, for example with vaccines. Looking at the final text, although we certainly did not get everything we wanted from the Greens EFA and IMCO side, I still welcome this regulation which will surely contribute to strengthening the Union's coordinated response to public health emergencies.

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 futuristic, but this is already the reality for a growing group of workers. Bosses are treating them like robots and new technologies allow them to constantly surveil them and micro-manage people, under huge time pressure. But constant monitoring also happens to office workers and civil servants. With the help of software, your boss can know exactly how many emails you send, how many keystrokes you make per hour, and even where your gaze is fixed. In a world like this, workers can’t thrive. The stress of being surveyed and the loss of autonomy leads to lower wellbeing of workers and impacts their mental health. We urgently need rules for the entire labour market to ban surveillance and constant monitoring of workers and regulate algorithmic management for all. And I’m happy to report calls for this. I’m now looking at the Commission to take action and make our workplaces safer, healthier and happier again.

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 disinformation generates the most advertising revenue, as we stay longer on the platform, resulting in a divided society. Not only on the internet, but also in healthcare and education, these tech companies are gaining more and more influence thanks to their money and data power. You hardly get out of it to use WhatsApp or to send your child to a Google school. Your Fitbit data goes directly to Google. This has to stop. With the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, we are taking major steps towards a world that is not in the hands of big tech, but in the hands of citizens. We are finally getting a better grip on what is happening online and are taking steps to slow down the megalomaniac expansion of tech companies. As far as I'm concerned, this is just the beginning.

– 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 no possibilities in a society.

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 lenders, wants to stop every step towards equality and reverse all progress that has been fought for. They advocate that women and anyone they think is different should be seen as inferior and should not have equal rights. But we won't let that happen. The harder they do their best, the louder we stand up for our rights. Starting with our sexual and reproductive rights, including abortion. Boss in his own belly. Don't let these historical words become history. Thank you.

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, they are actually greeted with anti—abortion propaganda. This includes women who have been raped, but also people who have fled, and now they just cannot get access to a safe abortion. This is a horrible situation you don’t wish to anyone. We need to support Ukrainian refugees with basic sexual and reproductive health and services wherever they go. If this cannot be assured in one Member State, we need to make sure that they get this support in another country as soon as possible. These are things that can not wait, and I hope the Commission will inform us on how they plan to act as quickly as possible on this, and help these victims of war with dignity.

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; it is used to push people to work at a machine-like pace. Employers are tracking employees’ every move – how many emails you send, how much time you spend at your keyboard, and even your emotions – to evaluate your performance. Amazon workers delivering packages have several tracking devices in their vans to not only track if they are reaching their targets, but also whether they look happy or tired while on the road. Zara shop assistants’ locations are continuously monitored and they are given automated orders in their earpieces and call centre workers are evaluated with emotion—recognition technologies based on how chirpy they sound while talking with customers. AI-driven surveillance at work is already a reality, and this endangers health and safety, mental health and fundamental rights. We must not treat AI like a magical tool for efficiency and productivity. Rather, we need clear rules to protect workers when there are issues at work. A new legislative proposal can help AI make our work easier and more pleasant, and this is what makes people productive at work. We need laws to empower workers and make sure technology is used to promote workers’ rights instead of allowing our bosses to continuously stalk, evaluate and exploit us. And this is why Parliament sends a strong signal with broad support. We need a legislative proposal to protect workers’ rights when AI is deployed at work.

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. The production of telephones has a major impact on people and the environment. We are rushing to force people to keep buying new phones and create more electronic waste. We need to fix the craziness of our disposable society. What the Commission proposed last week is a step in the right direction. We are going to make sure that products are designed in such a way that they last a long time and are easy to repair. But the next step is a strong right to repair. Software aging of phones that are still doing just fine should simply be banned. Only then can we say that we are digitizing sustainably.

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 need to give more security to young people, allowing them to build their lives. We need quality jobs for young people and to work together for an EU directive banning unpaid internships. We need to stop the rise in rents and house prices so that also young people can have an affordable place to live. And we need to ensure accessible mental health support for all young people. Let’s make the European year of Youth a year for change and not just an empty title.

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 this impacts the future of this generation. But we all have the responsibility to limit the damage. And what young people might need the most right now is to feel that they are taken seriously. And we don’t show this by making them work for companies and organisations for free. And that is why this year has to be the year that we ban unpaid internships and traineeships in Europe. The era of working for experience has to be over. If you work, you get paid. And we can no longer tolerate young people and their skills being exploited. We can no longer tolerate that you can only do an internship if your parents have enough money to support you. And we can no longer ask from young people to wait a few more years to first get older and wiser until they are seen as a worthy part of the labour market. The COVID pandemic already demanded young people to wait with living their full lives for two years. The least we can do is to ensure young people can start their lives on the labour market without making debts. And I want you all to know that this is what we will fight for, a European ban on unpaid internships.

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, we often hear that platforms need to take responsibility. But the internet shouldn’t be in the hands of a few companies that profit from the large spread of hate and disinformation. It’s up to us as politicians to take responsibility. And after 20 years without updates, we now have the chance to fundamentally change the rules on the internet. Let’s take back control from big tech and put it firmly back into the hands of the people. We need to break big tech’s power over our information before it erodes our democracy. But for some colleagues, it seems a step too far to make the necessary fundamental changes. Yes, as the text stands there will be good improvements for users, and I’m happy to see that our proposals have been taken on board for strong notice and action procedures and a ban on manipulating people’s choices online with dark patterns. But a few months ago, when Frances Haugen was here, every Group in this house tried to have the loudest voice on how we would rein in big tech, and look at where we are now. The deal that was struck in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) was warmly welcomed by the big tech lobby, and there’s a strong call from them to not vote for any amendments. And to my colleagues in the PPE, S&D and Renew groups who want to hold on to this IMCO deal: profiting financially from the spread of hate and disinformation must stop. Three simple solutions can change this fundamentally and protect our democracy. First of all, turn polarising, personalised algorithms based on clicks and interaction off by default. Secondly, ban pervasive tracking for ads online to stop these manipulative business models. And if we as Europe are serious about taking on big tech, let’s look at the need for a European platform supervisor, because strong rules are nothing without enforcement. These are proposals you can vote on today, and I call on you all to do so, because our democracy is too important to leave in the hands of large tech companies.

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 companies are slowly entering every aspect of our lives and we are slowly becoming completely dependent on them for our digital infrastructure and even our public services. The problem is these companies make decisions in the interest of the profit for their shareholders, and this means we cannot rely on them to run our entire societies in the public interest. This is why I’m happy that Parliament calls for strong rules today. We need to scrutinise gatekeeper mergers and acquisitions in all markets, not only the digital ones, because tech companies simply don’t always stick to digital markets, and we need interoperability of messenger services, meaning you should be able to send a message from your Signal account to your friends’ WhatsApp. Today we will vote on scrutinising gatekeepers’ access to our personal details when they buy a new company. Taking our privacy into account here would both help break the ever-expanding market power of Big Tech and help protect users’ fundamental rights. This is not only about abuse of power and markets. This is about our free choice, our autonomy and how we want to design our future society.

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 online public debate. Online hate is poisoning our society. It undermines our free debate and ultimately our democracies. And that’s why we need urgent action. Make all forms of gender—based violence illegal across Europe and prosecute perpetrators. And make sure victims don’t stand empty handed and have somewhere to go for support. The goal of gender—based cyberviolence is to silence us, but we will not be silenced. And to the online trolls who are afraid they won’t get away with publishing people’s home address and sending rape or death threats anymore, that’s kind of the whole point.

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 we don't take action, there's one too many. Two years ago, you announced that you would come forward with European legislation to criminalise and prevent this violence. Next month you would finally present it, but now it has been postponed again. We can't wait any longer. It is also high time for the EU to ratify the Istanbul Convention. Women across Europe are counting on you, and we expect action, not empty words!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner Schmit, the European Commission wrote in the latest report on the Netherlands (and I quote): ‘Subsidies for social housing lead to an underdeveloped private rental market.’ This is how the European Commission looks at living in the Netherlands, only as a market, not as a right. House prices in Europe rose by 7% this year and in the Netherlands they are rising the fastest. The housing protests in the Netherlands show that people are tired. Homelessness continues to rise. Access to social housing and combating homelessness are clearly described in the European Pillar of Social Rights and I therefore call on the European Commission to take swift action on the following three points: encourage countries to invest in social housing through the Semester; provide sufficient budget for the European Platform on Combating Homelessness so that we can really get to work on ending homelessness by 2030; and help cities curb illegal holiday rentals by requiring platforms to share data with municipalities on rental addresses. Living is a human right. Show that in the policy as well.

Madam President, for years, platforms have been profiting from the large—scale spread of disinformation and hate, and their decisions are driven by profit, image and shareholder value. Any impact on society or democracy is just collateral damage. And as the courageous whistle—blower Frances Haugen revealed in the past weeks, Facebook’s algorithms are programmed to promote and spread content that feeds anger such as hate, fake news and shocking content. People with many followers were exempted from all of Facebook’s rules and could post whatever they liked, including fake news. And this while Instagram is worsening one in three teenage girls’ body issues and impacting a generation’s mental health. And they know the impact of their algorithm but refuse to do anything about it. These same big corporations are acting as guardians of our online space and miserably failing, and this is why we shouldn’t look at them to fix the problem for us. Incentivising platforms to delete even more only reinforces their power over our free speech. We have to tackle the root causes, which are a small number of very large and powerful platforms controlling our public debate and amplifying fake news and hate on a large scale specifically targeting certain people for profit. What we get to see online should not be up to CEOs and shareholders. We need to break big tech’s power over internet users. Let us ban manipulation by toxic algorithms, microtargeting and dark patterns and give people more meaningful control over recommender algorithms. How we regulate today’s tech companies can only protect and strengthen our future society if we make bold choices. We need to take the power over what we see online out of the hands of private companies and place it firmly back in the hands of the people.

Mr President, without knowing, we are all being tracked, followed and identified on the streets by facial recognition cameras. This is dangerous, intrusive and disproportionate. Imagine waking up one day with the police barging into your house after AI has flagged you as a suspect. Then it’s up to you to prove your innocence. It is you versus the computer. And the myth that a calculation is more ethical than a human is dangerous, especially where decisions impact people’s lives. So to my colleagues from the EPP: let’s be realistic. AI is not a quick solution to fight crime or terrorism. An AI camera will not detect radicalisation, and automating police work is not a substitute for police funding and community workers. Looking at the US, in New York City and Boston, replacing AI-driven predictive policing with community policing lowered crime rates. And San Francisco and Boston have already banned biometric surveillance in public spaces. So not only is a ban perfectly feasible, we in the EU are far behind in our ethical AI choices. And if we as Parliament are serious about making the EU a leader in ethical AI and fundamental human rights, let’s ban biometric surveillance in public spaces.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I would like to start by congratulating the FNV and the Dutch Uber drivers for the victory they won today in the lawsuit against Uber. Uber has to hire its drivers and pay the overdue wages. This is a great result. I will now continue in English. The verdict in the Netherlands adds to over 100 court cases across the EU, and with these court cases platform workers simply ask to be treated the same way as other workers, with the same social benefits and opportunities, and the cases have overwhelmingly been won by the platform workers. You might think that Uber, Glovo, Deliveroo and other platforms would then bury the hatchet, play nice and hire their workers. But instead they do everything to keep operating outside of the law or to even change the rules in their favour with workers paying the price. And in the long run we actually all risk paying the price because this business model undermines our social security system. Platform workers going to court are fighting an uphill battle against the platforms’ army of lawyers and resources, and that is why we, the lawmakers, need to step in, and that is why I am very pleased with this report because we give a clear mandate to the European Commission for strict rules and to once and for all tell these platforms how we protect their workers and that we have a model based on solidarity. That's why I also really would like to thank my shadow co-rapporteurs and the rapporteur for the great cooperation while writing this report, because if we stand together we can really make a social Europe happen. So what do we want? We start by putting in place a presumption of employment relationship for platform workers. This may sound complicated but it simply means that it should be up to platforms to prove that someone is really an entrepreneur instead of the workers. And for me, it's quite simple. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's likely a duck. So why give workers some basic rights rather than the full rights of an employee? It should’t matter when you are cleaning someone’s house if you’ve been hired through a platform or an agency: You should have the same rights. And next it is important to clarify what distinguishes these platform workers from other workers and namely the fact that an algorithm dictates what happens. A Dutch judge explained today being subject to an algorithm is modern employers’ control. Workers are constantly tracked, monitored, proactive and even fired by algorithms without even knowing why the algorithm assigns them certain tasks and what the price is actually based on, and as a result platform workers are under extreme stress. We need to protect workers against algorithmic management. Workers must be able to know that not only does an algorithm exist, but also how it assigns tasks and sets the prices. Important HR decisions should always be made by a person and not a computer. These issues are not regulated deals with in the AIF and have to be addressed in the Directive on platform work. Colleagues, it is important that we have this legislation and when it comes to the future of work and the future of a social model this is one of the first battlegrounds; The outcome will be important for how we will regulate the labour market in the future.

Mr President, when my niece was born I gave her a picture book called Filola wants a crocodile. In this book, Filola’s mums go out on a mission to find her a crocodile for her birthday. Mums, yes, because I want her to know that having a gay aunt isn’t something to be embarrassed about, but can give you a life full of adventures. In Hungary, from tomorrow onwards, this is a crime, because it’s forbidden to teach children about different sexualities and identities. And I’ve heard the Commission say over and over, ‘this is not in line with European values’. So do something about it. Launch an accelerated infringement procedure, freeze EU funds, make use of all the tools you have. But I’m also calling on the Member States to act because you have been bystanders while bill after bill has diminished the rights of our community and not only in Hungary and Poland. But using our community as a distraction to undermine the rule of law will not change who we are or who we love. Our community is strong and we will continue to fight for our rights together.