Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today it seems to me that Europe is beginning a clear path of contradictions. In recent years, with the law of nature restoration and the European biodiversity strategy, we have embarked on a path towards respect for the ecosystem. On the other hand, however, today it is proposed to review the protection status of wolves and this without there being a real EU emergency. During my previous experience as a public official I have learned that decisions are always made if there is an actual emergency and that they must be adequate, appropriate and proportionate to the danger. Frankly, I don't see these conditions today. Why do we want to downgrade the wolf to its current system and level of protection? Who benefits from this decision? Certainly not to the community and not even to our farmers, who probably want to be supported in investments to acquire tools of deterrence and as small farmers.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you, Commissioner, air pollution is not just an environmental emergency, it is a social and health emergency. It is the leading cause of premature death in Europe and in Italy we have 52 000 deaths per year, particularly in the northern regions, Lombardy and Piedmont. Yet the governors of the regions have said that this proposal is unworkable and unrealistic. But we have a great opportunity. We also have a duty to take timely and appropriate measures. The goal of "zero pollution" can only be achieved if there is great sharing between Europe and the municipalities. However, enforcement measures must be financed with adequate and dedicated European funds. The health of the planet is our health: We show that it is still one of our priorities.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I think that one of the things that we have not addressed and that we have to address is a fundamental right, which is now being questioned or is being strongly questioned, which is the right to decent housing for all. I believe that one of the conditions that must be addressed, as this Parliament has already determined in a resolution of 21 January, is precisely that of guaranteeing decent housing. Together with the health strategy, which is one of the increasing costs for which this right is no longer guaranteed in many Member States, it needs to be tackled forcefully. I therefore call on the Commission to follow up this resolution and come to the regulation of services of general interest, extending the range of services themselves, not only the right to housing to those who rightly find themselves in a situation of social hardship but to all those young couples and our precarious young people who today can no longer access a mortgage and cannot access a loan. So we also use the tools that we have made available with the green deal so that those funds also go to encourage those who provide accommodation at an affordable and affordable price.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today I feel and we must all feel a great responsibility. The last flood in Emilia Romagna caused 15 deaths and 9 billion euros in damage. I still have before my eyes the floods of Genoa, a city of which I was general manager. Those who, like me, have experienced such experiences have felt a great sense of helplessness and inadequacy for not having been able to do more to prevent the effects of such disasters. You don't have to resign yourself! Scientists, associations and millions of citizens are asking us to intervene. Climate change is not an inevitable process; restoring degraded land and protecting biodiversity are the tools. We are not insensitive to economic reasons but from here, far from the pressures of special interests, today we can reverse the course. Dear colleagues of the EPP, dear colleagues of Renew, please do not pursue the extreme right and those who deny global warming, vote for this measure, it is an investment in the future of our children! We, as the Five Star Movement, will strongly support and vote for this measure.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, deep and long-term climate change is visible to all and is on-going and has an irreversible path. From 1970 to 2021, they caused 2 million deaths and $4.3 trillion in damage worldwide. A month ago in Emilia Romagna still 16 dead, hundreds of isolated countries, companies on their knees. Yet there is someone in this Parliament, of whom I am ashamed, who denies that these phenomena are the responsibility of irresponsible human behaviour. In the name of the many victims, the children who died in Genoa, returning from school, I ask this Parliament not to back down, to approve the ambitious goals we have set ourselves. It is too easy to vote on strategies and then vote against the Nature Restoration Regulation, and I call for expenditure on maintenance and emergency staff to be removed from the Stability Pact.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, with this new regulation, the Union is taking another decisive step in the right direction. Particular praise goes to those colleagues who have turned a good position of the Commission into a very good proposal from Parliament. Never before have such ambitious measures to reduce methane emissions been envisaged: Methane emission reductions of 45% by 2030 could avoid 0.3 degrees of global warming by 2045. In the energy sector, three-quarters of methane emissions can be avoided with simple measures and without major investments. As a 5 Star Movement we have always fought for transparency, so we particularly appreciate the census of sources, the strengthening of controls and the introduction of high safety standards. Europe imports more than 80% of fossil fuels. This legislation adds significant value to EU and international action and sends a strong political signal to external actors, strengthening the Union’s leading role in the fight against climate change.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in Italian hospitals we are collapsing, as in Saronno, where a thousand citizens took to the streets last week. Medical personnel are scarce in emergency rooms and resuscitation departments, where the boundary between life and death is often blurred and where the quality of service makes the difference between life and death, in fact. The limits imposed by the Stability Pact on health workforce spending have hampered new recruitment and adequate remuneration. To circumvent these limits, service contracts are concluded which often mask employment relationships. We therefore find ourselves with doctors called "coin-operated", with little knowledge of the health facility, who carry out grueling work shifts and outside the maximum hours provided for by European legislation. We exclude this expenditure from the Stability Pact, we establish common health standards in terms of wages and working arrangements and in terms of training and certification of operators. Health and healthcare should be included among the shared competences between the Union and the Member States, and recommendations are not enough.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on 14 March we approved the negotiating mandate for the proposal for a directive on the energy efficiency of buildings, and today another crucial dossier is under discussion: the proposal for a Regulation establishing the Social Climate Fund. We have always asked for additional resources to support the weakest groups affected by energy poverty, with these 65 billion we go, timidly, in the right direction. We believe that this fund should include all the resources provided for in other measures, because there is a risk of a fragmented and disorienting funding framework. Energy efficiency, access to decent housing and mobility must not be a luxury reserved for the few. The Europe we want is ambitious in fully embracing the energy transition, but it must be more attentive to the weakest groups. No one should be left behind.

Mr President, Commissioner, today I welcome the result achieved by the co-legislators on the regulation for deforestation-free products. It was urgent and urgent to put a stop, immediately, to wild and uncontrolled deforestation. In the last decade alone, more than 100 million hectares of forest have gone up in smoke. It's time to say enough. Biodiversity, the conservation of ecosystems, as well as native populations must be defended at all costs. This regulation goes in the right direction, but more needs to be done on the effectiveness of controls. And we hope that, starting from the next review, the percentage and minimum thresholds of checks to be carried out by public authorities will be increased, because there is a high risk that our consumers will never make informed choices again, because we do not want to frustrate the expectations of these ambitious objectives by not carrying out the necessary checks.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Madam President von der Leyen, Mr President Michel, the outcome of the last European Council, as the Five Star Movement, does not satisfy us. Europe cannot meet the global challenge of sustainable transition without additional resources. The State aid derogation alone is not enough and benefits countries such as France and Germany, increasing inequality between Member States. I ask you: Italy, Spain and other small countries where will they find the resources to finance the transition we want with conviction? Will our companies be able to compete with American and Chinese companies? We need a new Recovery Fund, financed by new European debt. On migrants, President Meloni is wrong to make an axis with sovereignist countries, opposed to redistribution and legal avenues of access. We shall proceed without delay with the reform of the Dublin Regulation. Dear President von der Leyen, to avoid tragedies like Cutro's, we need more solidarity and all his courage and determination as a woman and a mother. I exhort you, you can, we believe in it because you have shown it in other tragic circumstances.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, climate change is a global emergency affecting countries on all continents through economic conditions, extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels. The biggest political project of our time is to try to limit these effects through ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, while ensuring a just transition and the competitiveness of our economies. The national targets set are important: cultivated land, pastures, wetlands must become a source of net removal. Food needs to be more climate-friendly. More sustainable forest management systems need to be introduced. Degraded land must be restored. Enough with land use, but enough with recessive policies. Public revenues must be channelled to support individual farmers who practice biodiversity-friendly practices.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, this agreement on CO2 emissions from cars and vans is taking a radical, real and important turn to protect the health of citizens. I was elected in Lombardy and Piedmont, one of the most polluted areas in Europe. A rich area, but where the air is unbreathable. An estimated 15,000 people died prematurely from pollution in 2020 and 80,000 people die annually from smog. But to make this development sustainable, public transport must be encouraged. Our roads are full of trucks transporting goods all over Europe. We need to support our small and medium-sized enterprises and all related industries. Our policies must be coordinated policies, which also take into account the fiscal capacity of our country.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the serious shortage of commonly used medicines is a serious problem that can no longer be postponed. From the experience of Covid it does not seem that we have borrowed the choices to be made and made as soon as possible. Since 1989, the then European Community indicated the need for Europe to intervene in price control policies. For the Five Star Movement, the European Union must become the guarantor of research, production and the creation of strategic stocks. We cannot depend on Big Pharma's choices. We strengthen the functions of EMA in terms of price control, planning and the definition of clear standards to which pharmaceutical companies must comply by providing penalizing and rewarding measures. We create a body governed by public law, with the participation of the central states, of all our states, a central purchasing body that makes framework agreements to guarantee a system of distribution of medicines that must be and must remain everywhere unanimously a service of general interest.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, more circular economy and more separate collection: This is the road that Europe is on today. As a 5 Star Movement we are proud to make our contribution. In particular, there are two main principles of this new regulation: the first is to prohibit the transport between Member States of all waste destined for disposal. This requires that local governments make separate collection work effectively. Of course, we could dare more, I think of the same ban applied in regional areas within the same country. A ban on exports to countries, especially the poorest. With greater traceability we fight lawlessness and the mafia. Let's not forget, in fact, that in many realities the disposal is operated under the control of the underworld. I think I should draw attention to the fact that some of our companies producing waste paper could be penalized if this recycling were not considered outside the waste sector. Today, however, let's take a step forward. The circular economy is now a reality.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, inflation in October was 10 % higher, but salaries and pensions have remained almost flat. Poverty and social exclusion will increase in the coming months. We risk a disaster. European companies are now paying seven times more for energy than their American and Asian competitors. I ask all of you: How long will they be able to survive in the global market? Faced with a structural crisis, the European response is lacking or even harmful, given that the increase in the cost of money by the ECB has not lowered inflation, but increases the risk of recession and energy dependence. To combat rising prices, speculation must be stopped. It is not tolerable for public undertakings to make more profits, especially in the field of thermal networks, and I would like to put a question to the Commission in this connection. For the 5 Star Movement we must put a cap on the price of gas, we must make unique European purchases and put a ban on companies in public control to produce profits on services of general interest, as well as a recovery fund energy, boosting investment in renewable energy.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, every six hours a woman is killed in Europe and this is often done at the hands of her partner. This phenomenon, which does not stop, has been tackled with insufficient repressive judicial measures. According to the WHO, many perpetrators of these crimes are sick people, suffering from narcissistic personality disorder and often themselves victims of abuse in their childhood. The Commission shall address a plan containing targets for reducing gender-based violence. We need research on this pathology and appropriate treatment for a problem that is also health. Victims should be helped with safety measures, psychotherapeutic support and should be put in a position to leave home without losing custody of their children. They must be able to recognize the pathology of the partner, the toxicity of that relationship and the signs of violent escalation. We help women to combat manipulation mechanisms and to be aware that the causes of violence lie in their partner's personality and not in themselves.