Speeches

Mr President! "We children also have rights – it's clear – and that's exactly what we stand up for" sings the youth band Cringe and Lost from my constituency. Unfortunately, it is often not as clear as it should be. 35 years ago, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted. But today almost 25 percent of children in the EU are still at risk of poverty, in Germany just under 17 percent. A recent Eurochild study shows that child poverty has actually increased in 16 Member States since 2022. The EU must consistently implement children's rights, fight poverty, strengthen education and cultural participation. It must promote integration and ensure protection against violence. Your origin must not decide what future you have. Maintaining your rights to protection, education, health and co-determination means giving you the chance to live a self-determined and safe life. This will also strengthen a fairer Europe and our future. Children have rights, that's for sure.

Madam President, The recent incidents in the Baltic Sea are an alarming signal. On 18 November, the submarine cable C-Lion1 between Finland and Germany was damaged, shortly before another cable between Lithuania and Sweden. Russia and China are stepping up their activities in the region, mapping the Baltic Sea with so-called research vessels, and targeted sabotage seems likely. Such attacks on critical infrastructure are not only unacceptable, they are a direct attack on the stability and cohesion of our society. We condemn this in the strongest possible terms. Our infrastructure is vulnerable. That's why we need more robust cables, satellite solutions and clear resilience plans to prioritize particularly important data transfers. At the same time, the EU needs to invest more in its own infrastructure and strengthen cross-border cooperation. For my hometown Rostock and all of Europe, this is an urgent necessity. Now is the time to act decisively – purposefully and collectively. We cannot allow attacks on our critical infrastructure.

Madam President, New technologies offer great opportunities: They open up access to a world of knowledge and networking. But there is also a downside: The power of the large digital platforms has now grown oversized. It worries me that we rely on the moral notions of the few billionaires who control these platforms. We should not depend on the daytime mood of an Elon Musk, a Mark Zuckerberg or even a Vladimir Putin. The impact of these platforms on our democracy is unmistakable. Brexit was just a taste of what can happen when algorithms decide what content we see. The more radical the content, the more clicks it gets. And the result: a distorted reality that feeds fear, hatred and mistrust of our democratic institutions. This is also what members of the AfD from the European Parliament are embracing here: For example, if they show a clear aversion to immigration, Islam or queer rights on TikTok, fake news and hate speech are often spread. Young people are particularly affected by these developments. There is often a lack of awareness to distinguish between true information and targeted disinformation. The psychological and emotional impact of hate speech and hate speech on young people is enormous; they jeopardise their trust in society, in democracy and in their future. We also see this in the voting behaviour of young people in the eastern state elections in Germany: In Thuringia, according to the research group Elections, 35% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 put their cross at the AfD. We therefore need to make digital platforms more accountable. Clear rules and effective mechanisms are needed to quickly identify and remove hateful and anti-democratic content. We also need to step up our support to civil society organisations fighting such radicalisation and to work together to counter hate speech and fake news. The Internet should remain a place of knowledge and coexistence and not a space that undermines our democracy.

Mr President! No voice for the regions? These days it is clear how serious Ursula von der Leyen is about a Europe of regions. According to an internal paper, the Commission plans to centralise key funding in cohesion policy; The regions are left out. This decision concerns key areas such as agriculture, fisheries and regional development. Rural areas in particular are particularly dependent on these subsidies. I come from the Baltic Sea coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Topics such as demographic change, infrastructure, energy transition have occupied us for decades. How should we strengthen cohesion in the EU if people on the ground are left out? If we leave the decision to the nation states, we risk pitting the interests of rural areas against industrial centers. In addition, Parliament, as the budgetary authority, would also lose influence over these funds. Ecological, social and local development does not come down from above. We must strengthen the regions, instead of depriving them of their voice, for a Europe of regions that grows together and is fair to the people: This is our vision!