Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, in my own country, Greece, I have travelled to many places in the province, in our villages, in our islands, everywhere. There, then, I have met incredible women of all ages, with vision, strength and stubbornness. Women who do not want to leave, want to stay in their place, to create and offer, to keep their communities alive, to strengthen the local economy, to highlight the identity of this place. Yet, let's be clear, female entrepreneurship remains undervalued and often faces basic inequalities, limited access to finance, fewer networking opportunities, barriers to education and infrastructure. But these women don't need our sympathy. They need opportunities, they need motivation, support, guidance, monitoring, networks, accessibility. Because when a woman can stand on her own feet financially, she gets a voice, choices and dignity. And through this independence, a safer world is slowly being built for herself and for every woman around her. It is a world where gender-based violence finds no place to take root. Women's entrepreneurship is not just growth. It is a quiet but profound force for change.

Thank you, Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. I want you to imagine a woman still, with her body frozen and someone raping every cell, mental and physical. She wants to scream, but her mouth doesn't make a sound. He doesn't scream, he doesn't ring, he doesn't run. Not because he consents, but because he is paralyzed by fear. What some still ask why science hasn't responded to is officially recognized as a "freeze response," that is, an automatic neurobiological survival response when the brain perceives extreme danger and neither fighting nor fleeing is possible, because the body just freezes. Stillness, however, is not consent, it is terror. And silence is not acceptance, it is shock. And there are other cases where consent is impossible. When a woman is drunk, drugged, unconscious, drugged, in a state she cannot comprehend and choose, a woman in these circumstances cannot say "yes." That is why the definition of rape must be based on consent, not on bruising, not on screaming, not on how much or how little the victim fought in relation to how much the viewers of his tragedy would like. And when we try cases like this, shouldn't we ask the victim what she was wearing? Why didn't he shout? Why didn't he leave? One is the essential question to be asked. Was there a free, clear and genuine consensus? If not, then we're talking about rape.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, homosexuality is not a disease and conversion practices are not cures. Yet, even today, there are people – many times among them minor children – who are subject to such practices. Practices based on fear, guilt, rejection, not science. There is not the slightest scientific evidence that these practices, even if there is consensus, ultimately work. But there is clear evidence that they damage, cause deep trauma, depression, loss of self-esteem, and even suicidal ideation. They include practices such as coercive psychotherapy, medication, electroshocks, exorcisms, and other onerous methods that have nothing to do with medicine, nothing to do with science. And yet, according to the latest data, 24% of LGBT people say they have experienced some form of such conversion. It is a form of abuse, a form of violence. Because conversion therapies are abuse, they are violence, they offend human dignity, they violate fundamental human rights and they leave deep trauma. Eight Member States of the European Union, including my country, Greece, have already banned these practices at national level. The other Member States must follow if we are to be called a Europe that does not just speak of values, but implements them.

Madam President, I would like to address all those who consider Women's Day to be graphic. To those who are almost tired of hearing about our problems and about women's rights. People were talking on the phone and laughing while Jackie Fox was talking. So I tell you that your attitude is not towards us women. It is your attitude towards the mother who gave birth to you and raised you· your attitude towards your sister and the social inequalities she experiences· your attitude towards your daughter and the violence she may receive from her partner · your attitude towards your friend who struggles every day to prove herself at work· Your attitude towards your wife, Jackie Fox, her daughter, Coco, Iranian women, all of us. And that attitude of yours is the problem. It's the problem we're fighting and we'll keep fighting until it changes.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, millions of women have seen themselves naked online, without ever having undressed and without ever having been able to download the content from the platforms. Between them and me. Simple photos, from Instagram, dressed, everyday, stripped bare with a click of algorithms, without permission, without shame, without consent, without consequences. This is not a side effect of technology. It's sexual exploitation. It's blackmail. It's a digital rape. And of course deepfakes target women again – those who are exposed, those who speak, those who annoy, those who envy and those who avenge them. But let's stop the story. It's not artificial intelligence's fault. It's the platforms that win big and the laws that don't apply. The European Union has digital rules. But do platforms implement them? No, it's not. The algorithm cannot have more rights than the human body. Either we impose immediate removal of illegal deepfake material and sanctions or we demand full responsibility from platforms and admit that the digital future does not require the female body to be an object. I'm sorry, but I can't accept that.

Madam President, violence against women remains one of the most persistent pathologies. But let's talk openly. Violence is not just murder and physical abuse. Violence is also emotional abuse, constant demotion, internalized misogyny, hate speech. In all this there are not only male perpetrators and female victims. There are men and women who consciously or unconsciously reproduce stereotypes that want the woman inferior, less capable, less worthy. She must be the one who is left behind, she will be patient, she will not speak, she will endure, she will not work because she keeps the house and the family tied up. Stereotypes that want professions, jobs and sports not to be for women. Behaviors and clothing they cause. Stereotypes that want women to get on the bench because they grow up are no longer young or absolutely beautiful. If that's not violence, then what is? And we live through all this, we pass it on from generation to generation, from homes to schools, from societies to our children – men and women. This narrative needs to change. That's why today I appeal so much to men: become allies – we need you in this fight – as much as women: Never accept that this is the way things are. It's not like that. We lie to ourselves and our children.

Madam President, Commissioner, there are many who believe that the issue of equality has been settled. Let's go see if that's the case. Pay gap: women receive 12% lower pay and 37% lower pensions than men. Medicine and health: clinical structures and drug studies are primarily conducted on a male sample, with the result that women are often misdiagnosed and, in some cases, not at all. Gender-based violence: Every ten minutes a woman worldwide is murdered by her husband, partner or family member. At the same time, women are clearly more vulnerable to other forms of violence. Have you ever seen vengeful pornography with a male victim? Nine out of ten victims are women. Citizenship: Don't go far, look around you, at the benches, in the corridors of the European Parliament, and you will understand that women are clearly fewer. Inequality is a reality and we live it, and we want to balance it. The Gender Equality Strategy is a tool that can help us in this direction, safeguarding rights and ensuring that no woman is left behind.

Madam President, let's talk a little bit about surrogacy: not for her pure form, that is, when a woman becomes a bearer of hope through the supreme act of altruism, but for the other, the darker side of surrogacy, that is, when need becomes a commodity; where vulnerable women are used as coercive means of reproduction; When women promote the process of surrogacy on social networks as a trendy profession, publicly celebrating the money they will receive by giving birth to a child but declaring at the same time happy that they will not be charged with the responsibility of raising him. It is then that the line between aid and exploitation becomes extremely thin. It is then that motherhood ceases to be an act of offering and love and becomes a contract. Europe must lead a regulatory and moral defence effort, with uniform rules, transparency, psychological and legal support for all sides and a clear distinction between altruistic and commercial surrogacy. Only in this way can we protect the sacred right to the creation of life, without allowing it to become a field of exploitation, profit and demonstration. For motherhood, like any form of love, must never be bought, it must only be honored.

Mr President, combating gender-based violence, reproductive rights, equality at work, in education, in health: all are contemporary issues and important priorities of the Women's Rights Roadmap. But do you know what the most common question women get today? Whether work is combined with motherhood. Do you know what the correct answer to this question is? It doesn't exist. No matter what the woman does, she will be judged. If the new mother wants to go back to work, she will be judged as an ambitious careerist who doesn't care about her child. If he has to work for a living, he will be accused of having a child when he cannot raise it. If he doesn't have a child, he'll be targeted. If she tears herself into a thousand pieces to do it all, there will always be those who will drown her in the guilt her child leaves for her job. Balancing work and family life is not a luxury. It should be a right – a right that we need to protect more than ever, with the Women’s Rights Roadmap. The Work-Life Balance Directive is an important step, but its implementation remains uneven. We need better maternity leave systems, fully paid, so that no mother has to choose between work and her child. We need accessible care services, not only for infants but also for older children. The mother's support should not end in the first year of the child, just as her role does not end. We need to ensure that women are reintegrated into the labour market after long leave, with incentives for employers, training programmes, flexible forms of employment that do not stigmatise. And, of course, we need to protect the right to motherhood. No woman should be afraid to get pregnant in case she loses her job. Unfortunately, the system punishes. The work of a new mother is underestimated. Its position is not guaranteed. Opportunities for growth are diminishing. If we want the Women's Rights Roadmap to have substance, then it should give women not only equal opportunities but also equal conditions to make use of them. Europe must become an ally of the mother and not a spectator of her struggle.

Mr President, Commissioner, 31 August, Afghanistan: 6.2 Richter and over 6 000 dead and wounded – most of them women and girls, who die because they are forbidden to be helped. In Afghanistan, where underage girls have been blackmailed into marriages since the age of 9, women are banned from speaking in public places, singing, seeing with both eyes, and studying. I will not ask where the activists are, because there are no marches to Afghanistan, where Greta is. But I'll ask what we do. And I ask it as rapporteur for the European People's Party to shape humanitarian aid policy in crisis areas – like Gaza, but like Afghanistan. So we do what is foreseen, we condemn and we impose sanctions. Unfortunately, our effort has no effect. We know it well. We're honored that we're fighting this. Even discussing the possibility of a controlled cooperation with the Taliban, which will by no means constitute recognition of the regime, but a strategic effort for a more peaceful Afghanistan. There can be no peace where there are no women. Commissioner, you are a woman. We must all work together to finally find a solution that does not put us on the same table as the regime, but one that forbids the regime to exist.

Madam President, Commissioner, our elderly are not the past. It is the living link that connects us to history and our values. They are the ones who set up the Europe of peace, solidarity, human dignity through wars, crises and hardships. They carry the memory, wisdom and values on which our European edifice was built. That is why today, more than ever, Europe must stand by them in practice, with policies and not just words. With European programmes that support active ageing, access to quality health services and home care for all. With initiatives such as the European Care Strategy, which seeks to support carers, i.e. people who struggle with older people every day. With digital policies that do not exclude but empower older people to remain active, informed, connected to the world. With policies that will combat ageism in every aspect of the labour market. Europe cannot be truly progressive unless it protects those who founded it, because progress is measured not only by growth indicators, but by the respect we show to the people who taught us what dignity means. Let us therefore make Europe a union of generations, where the wisdom of the elderly illuminates the future of all of us.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, none of us dream of our old age in an old-age care facility. No one wishes to spend the last years of their life behind the closed doors of an institution. We all want to grow old where we blossomed, where we created, loved and were loved. In our home, in our neighborhood, among people who know us by our first name. Deinstitutionalization is not a formal political reform. It is a profound human need. It is a promise that in the most vulnerable years of one's life no one will be invisible. That we will make sure that the elderly are not forced to part with what gives them meaning, memories, loved ones, familiar environments. As rapporteur on the respective file to address the care gap, my aim is to build people-centred alternatives, to invest in quality care services that reach the door of their home, to support families that bear the burden of care, to empower professional carers who give daily soul and time to stand by the side of the elderly, but also informal carers, the majority of whom are women, who have a difficult role to play, often sacrificing their personal life, work, and even their health, mental and physical. We need a comprehensive European action plan that coordinates Member States, builds on good practices, such as the Home Assistance programme we have in my country, Greece, and directs European resources towards solutions that enhance social reintegration. Because a society that respects its elderly, supports families and gives a voice to all those in need, is a society that honors its past and builds its future with solidarity and dignity. From the foundation, then, we must move to inclusion, from loneliness in the community and from distancing to maintaining and strengthening human relationships.

Madam President, Commissioner, 'why now?' This is the question that victims of sexual abuse are asked when they decide to talk about their trauma, even years after experiencing it. At last, we have the opportunity to put an end to this targeting of victims. It is important to vote on the Directive on the protection of children - victims of abuse. It opens the frame of sexual crimes for the internet as well. It tightens sentences and finally abolishes statute of limitations, allowing child sexual abuse crimes to be prosecuted even decades after they were committed. Because such heinous crimes, since they are not erased mentally, should not be allowed to be erased even legally. The victim has the right to take his time, to realize his abuse and to prepare psychologically so that he can report it. A time-consuming but – above all – arduous process, often prolonging or reviving abuse at second instance. Shame, guilt, fear, repulsion hold back the victim. It takes time. After all, it's never too late for justice and it's never too late for punishment.

Mr President, Commissioner, it is finally time to talk about mental health in the workplace. Since the first days in the European Parliament, I have sought to find out what Europe has done about bullying at work. I saw great initiatives. But they were all meant to empower the victim of workplace bullying, not to contain the bully. As if there is no way to deal with the problem. The problem, of course, is not the victim. The problem is the bully, whether male or female, who, because of his authority, position or simply vulgar character, thinks he has the right to discredit, devalue and humiliate people. The bully doesn't understand words, he doesn't have sensitivities. It wants a clear legal framework that defines and punishes workplace bullying. He wants employers to take action to support the victim, not cover up the bully. He also wants a mentality where a bully will no longer be a whimsical but successful, he will be a troublemaker who will have to comply.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, among other things, the Union of Skills has two major objectives: make Europe as competitive and inclusive as possible. Education and vocational training are not only learning and skilling tools of the future for a sophisticated and competitive workforce. They are also tools of empowerment, independence and equality for people with disabilities. Physical and digital accessibility through adapting infrastructure, equipment and specially designed learning tools, shaping inclusive education and training programmes such as Erasmus+, funding for technological innovations that will embrace the needs of 92 million Europeans with disabilities, effectively linking this vocational training to the labour market are just some of the policies and actions that can help create a society where everyone has equal opportunities. If we are to be called a society that recognises the value of every human being, we must work on these policies to ensure that every individual has the opportunity to harness their abilities, work, contribute and live independently. Oh, thank you.

Madam President, the Commission has therefore presented the Charter of Women's Rights and has come to remind, especially to those who forget easily, what the values of the European Union are: equality, freedom, justice and security in all areas and actions of life for women and men. Europe once again makes clear its position that it wants to continue fighting for gender equality. What if gender equality has been a fundamental right since 1957? What if we have been seeing it for years in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union? What if to this day, here, in our home, we see setbacks in times and perceptions from which we are struggling to escape. But we will continue this battle. This, of course, will be helped even more by the gender equality strategy, not by the charter. But until this comes into our hands, I will ask a rhetorical question: Is legislation enough to regulate all these social inequalities and injustices that we have been discussing over the years? What law will prohibit sexist men and women from judging us for our dress, for our age, for whether or not we have children? What law will stop patriarchal notions and beliefs of internalized misogyny from finding space in the speech and actions of men and women of all ages around the world? What law will forbid all those who question, reduce and deconstruct the woman of so many roles and so many achievements just because she is a woman? Dear colleagues, beyond the laws, we must work to change the narrative. To form a new collective unconscious. Otherwise, no matter what we do, there will always be professions that aren't for girls. There will always be women who will have to make their life through marriage or motherhood. There will always be crimes of passion, because someone loved his wife and killed her because he couldn't get away from her. Do you hear what we're saying? Do you hear what we've been saying for hundreds of years? This narrative needs to change. And the narrative doesn't just change with laws. The narrative changes with values, it changes with ethos and with education. What we are discussing here is not just laws. What we are discussing is the problem of education, as well as the solution.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, evolution, automation, digitalisation, the economic crisis, the pandemic, the need for a green transition are factors that have put many professions at risk, but have also opened doors to new ones. And those professions that manage to survive, will have to adapt to new data and upgrade. In any case, vocational training, new skills and education will be prerequisites for anyone who wants to stay dynamically in the game and be competitive and innovative. As long as we update ourselves through retraining and use the skills of the future as new software, we will be able to fulfil Europe's vision of being competitive. But you will allow me, as coordinator in the Women's Committee, to pass on the message that the umbrella of lifelong learning can become a powerful weapon for all women as well. For those who love careers, for those who are in an abusive environment and want to leave, but have no resources. For those who once left their jobs for the sake of the family and now ask for a second chance at work, for those who have never worked in their lives, but now want to pursue the dream.

Madam President, Commissioner, things are simple. In real life out there, the freedom of one stops where the freedom of the other begins. This is because rights and dignity, democracy, are protected by laws. In the parallel digital universe, however, democracy is under attack in its own name by distorted algorithms that, while giving a sense of the circulation of ideas and information in the context of freedom of speech, actually – behind the scenes – intend to direct public opinion, to manipulate it towards all of us. Distorted algorithms guide us on who to vote for, what to believe in, how to shop, how to live. Freedom of speech violates someone else's right to dignity. The European Union, aware early on of the dangers involved, has inspired the Digital Services Act, a truly promising protection plan for all of us. Now we have to convince the platforms to adapt, to comply. We're not even a threat to them. We're not moving the finger. We don't want to shut them down. We want security and democracy and clear digital rights. Because, ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry to tell you this, but if the platforms do not comply in the effort we are making, then all this effort will end up like the instructions of the plane. No one will listen to them when they are given, and when the plane falls no one will observe them.

Mr President, Commissioner, we still need 286 years to achieve absolute gender equality around the world if we continue to go at the pace we are going now. The good news of the day is that in Europe the numbers are a bit more optimistic. If 100% is absolute equality, we are currently at 71%. We certainly have a long way to go, but we also have some progress behind us, if one realizes that in 2019 we were at 66.9%. While the indicators are good, in the areas of economy, work, health, we still have a lot of work to do. What emerges from the data of the Institute for Gender Equality is that women still do not have access to education, technology professions, politics and positions of responsibility. And the reasons for this are clearly also racial, since a woman, when she dares to break the status quo, faces questioning, devaluation, sexism, disdain. But that's not all. Women and young girls are daily victims of prejudices and norms that are cultivated, reproduced and almost imposed by the media and social media and which fight in every way the value of the uniqueness and diversity of an autoluminous personality, discrediting the woman and making her the prey of massification. This is something that, as rapporteur for the European People's Party and party coordinator in the Committee on Gender Equality, I am very concerned about, and I have demonstrated this with the amendments that I have proposed, the adoption of which at committee level proves not only the position of the European Parliament, but also the urgency of changing this. I therefore call on all of you, ladies and gentlemen, to support our proposals and positions and to justify the European Union's multiannual efforts to create a universal society of justice and equality. Here we envision a woman who is dynamic, a woman who is bold, an independent, self-lit woman, with an opinion, a woman who is free. All over the world. And we will continue to work on it.

I listened carefully to your speech where you insisted and focused on the fact that we cannot ask the state to interfere in the way parents raise their children. However, there are also families that have completely inappropriate parents, parents who neglect their children emotionally, psychologically, do not care for them, and, in much worse cases, parents who rape and sexually abuse their children. In these cases, where will the children get protection from?