Speeches

Madam President, thank you very much. The EU's indulgence towards the Israeli government will go down in history as an unprecedented betrayal, not only of the Palestinian population but also of international law. As a lawyer, I am horrified. I am appalled that the rules we agreed upon after the Second World War – that the horrors we had then witnessed would never happen again – seem to be worth zero and nothing. For how can the EU meet Israeli representatives and talk about cooperation when genocide is going on? How can the EU accept that member states ignore the ICC arrest warrant against Israeli ministers? How can the EU close its eyes when Israel sabotages the ceasefire, prevents emergency aid from reaching Gaza and allows the bulldozers to roll into the West Bank? The EU must now clearly and genuinely, not only in words, support the initiatives that exist around the reconstruction of Gaza and really, not only in words, distance itself from any proposals that involve displacement of people and violations of international law.

Mr President, thank you very much. It has been 30 years since the Beijing Declaration, and we have not come any further. This is a far too weak and watered-down commitment from the Commission. There is a lot of focus on entrepreneurship, competition and growth. But the Commission ignores the fundamental right of women to our bodies. Where is the right to abortion? We have a rights charter that protects people's right to start a business, but not women's right to our bodies. Where are the proposals on consent law? Has the Commission not followed the terrible case of Gisèle Pelicot in France? Where are the international commitments? That the US cuts aid risks over 11 million women's lives when it comes to their right to sexual and reproductive health. 11 million! Where is Europe's solidarity? We are writing 2025. This roadmap is disappointing. We should have gone further.

Mr President, thank you very much. There is a little ‘good-bye axe shaft’ on this proposal. Well, you have to say that anyway. Constantly changing the rules of the game for companies creates uncertainty and, in the long run, actually bad competition. If the Commission does not want to listen to me, then you can listen to the CEO of Volvo Cars when he says that the EU is now backing down from its previous climate demands. "We are very disappointed in the EU," he said. Through the Omnibus package, the European Commission pretends that fewer environmental and climate requirements and worse rules for workers increase competition. But it's just the opposite. Deregulation and reduced societal demands on companies lead to inferior products and services and, in addition, often popular anger. Believe me, I'm from Sweden: Our pharmacies barely have medications, but there is make-up and chocolate in abundance. Our schools are owned by venture capitalists. Our trains rarely run on time. But I actually think that the Commission should listen to the head of Volvo when he says that those who did not meet the requirements have put the effort into getting the rules of the game changed to suit them. I'm hugely disappointed.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. This is ridiculous, but also very, very serious. With the stubbornness of a fool and like a parrot, the Commission and the right in this House repeat: Simplifications, Simplifications, Simplifications. And that is what the Commission and the right mean by competition. But who is affected when rules to protect us are removed? We are now seeing attacks on workers' rights and how precise attempts are being made to lower the rules that companies should not exploit slave labour. In Sweden, my country, 44 workers died last year. Fathers and mothers who in the morning left their children in kindergarten, but who never had the opportunity to pick them up and see them again. In many of these cases, there were not too many rules that were the problem. There were too few rules. Simplification of rules. It is about deregulating society, about giving politics and the people less and less say. This opens the door to competition for poor conditions. One Race to the Bottom. And it's a competition, my friends, with only a few winners while the rest of us are losers.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. Gisèle Pelicot was drugged and exploited by neighbors and acquaintances. Yesterday, the German media revealed a huge rape network on social media. In war-torn countries such as Sudan and Congo, rape is put in a system. That men take the right to exploit women's bodies is the ultimate expression of a society where men still have more power than women. And as a representative of mine has said: it is the same norm, the same structure, the same pattern that is repeated both in the Taliban's Afghanistan and here, in this case in our European Union. When the important UN declaration on women's rights is now to be evaluated, it is therefore so important that we as a European Parliament can back up the left's proposal that sex without consent should be considered rape. All over the world, we women are raising our voices. Just a yes is a yes.

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your In many conflicts, including Sudan and Congo, rape is used as a weapon. Sexual violence affects women on the ground in war zones, but also women on the run. But while we are sitting in this room debating, the EU is actually funding violence. In its quest to outsource the reception of refugees to other countries, the EU is fuelling conflicts and gross human rights violations. whereas there are allegations that EU money went to the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces in Sudan – a group identified by Human Rights Watch as repeatedly using sexual violence in its warfare; We have also seen it in Libya, we have seen it in Tunisia, how the European Union funds violence in order to prevent people from getting here. This has got to stop. No more tax money to perpetuate or facilitate violence. No more migration pacts.

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your Yesterday, the Swedish government called a press conference about young people's screen time and use of apps such as TikTok and Instagram. In Sweden, one in ten girls is estimated to be screen-dependent. The Minister of Social Affairs talked about how the excessive use of smartphones causes severe injuries, such as poor sleep and poor mental health, and that parental responsibility is great. That, of course, is true. But it is also true that we live in a time when some of the most powerful companies in the history of the world control not only our private lives but also a large part of the public and the economy. The business model itself is to get us addicted, spread disinformation and hatred. It is a model that generates large profits for a few. Society needs to do more here. Here, the EU must do more to break up the dominance of tech giants and limit their business models. Member States and the Commission have the tools. So roll up your sleeves, get to work and make sure it costs tech giants to rule our lives and limit our democracies.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. 2017 marked a revolution. Me too, a global movement in which we women broke the silence about sexual abuse. However, 85,000 women are still murdered every year. Violence is the ultimate expression of men taking the right to control women's bodies and lives. From Gisèle Pelicot in the French courtroom through Polish women's struggle for abortion rights to women in the United States, who are now fighting for their reproductive rights, to women protesting in Iran. whereas anti-feminist movements not only threaten women’s rights when they try to silence us in homes, workplaces and public spaces – the hatred of us women who organise us politically is also ever present and a threat to democracy; But we resist. The personal is political. We stand here today, we will stand here tomorrow and we will always place the blame where it belongs and demand political reforms that give us women human rights, no matter where in the world we are.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. I think the Swedish government should read the Draghi report. Where the report proposes massive investments in the future, which could be used to implement the green transition – better jobs, better education – Sweden is now deciding to save. This is despite a very low government debt. In the Swedish schools, massive cuts are being made. Stupidity, said a Swedish bank manager, and I agree. For too long, politicians in this Parliament and across Europe have clung to an outdated idea that it is the market that will unilaterally solve the future for all of us, that the future will be built by someone else. Now the signal from the EU must be clear: The Member States, including Sweden, are also expected to make major investments in education, not cuts. You can't save yourself in the future.

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your This UN report is of great importance – not only for Polish women, but for all the women in the world. It says that women's rights are human rights, that abortion rights are a human right. It should be self-evident – it is 2024 anyway – but it is not. Men all over the world still have the right to control our bodies, to limit our lives, to put women in danger. It is now up to us in this Parliament to act. The right to abortion must be enshrined in the European Charter of Rights. No country should be able to continue to use violence against our bodies. To those of you who say it's complicated, that you have other objections, I say: Get your act together! The right to start a business is currently enshrined in the Charter and it is fine. But how can it be that it is more important than the right to our lives? Follow the UN recommendations! Decide that abortion is a human right.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. I will start by saying that I am glad that we are having this discussion, because the situation is unsustainable. From the Left, we have long demanded a tighter regulatory framework for e-commerce platforms. A recent test by the toy industry shows that 8 out of 10 toys imported into the EU that can be purchased on various internet sites are at risk of suffocating or poisoning children: Suffocating and poisoning our children. They do not meet EU safety requirements. Our task as legislators is to ensure that the risk of accidents is reduced, that citizens are safe and secure. We do this by rewarding environmentally friendly and safe products, while ensuring that the working conditions of those who produce these things are good. It is not only children and other consumers in Europe who are at risk of harm. There are recurrent indications that many of these products, in addition to being harmful, are also made with forced labour. The Commission must act – not only because this laxity towards foreign internet sites competes with lower standards and worse working conditions than goods produced under EU law. In fact, the current regulatory framework leads to major risks for all citizens – not least for our children. The solution must be that foreign sites will also have the same obligations as domestic operators, that customs will have more resources and that goods imported, for example from China, will no longer be subsidised when it comes to, for example, shipping costs.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. More and more people can't afford a home, and that's serious. The EU is currently an obstacle to Swedish housing policy, and I say this after several years of working with rental law and supporting tenants in the Swedish housing market. We have not social housing in Sweden, but today's state aid rules from the EU prevent our public utilities and public housing companies from building and managing according to a cost principle. People’s homes are not just any good – having a roof over one’s head is a human right. It is good that the Commission is now preparing a plan for housing construction. It must also work in countries that do not have social housing. I therefore expect a focus on changing state aid rules, preventing speculation about people's housing and strengthening tenants' rights.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. More than 10 million Sudanese are internally displaced, 70% of the population is at risk of starvation – people like you and me. But let's also talk about the elephant in the room: how the EU, in its eagerness to outsource the reception of refugees to other countries, risks feeding conflicts and serious crimes against people. There are many claims that EU money went to just Rapid Support Forces. We've seen it with Libya and we've seen it with Tunisia: how the EU funds violence to prevent people from getting here, regardless of the people it harms or the groups it funds. This has got to stop. No more immigration deals.

I must say that I did not fully understand the entrance. What we see in Sweden and Denmark – for nine years – is border controls, randomly carrying out this type of check. I travel that route every week, and it is a problem not only for those who are exposed and experience racial profiling, but also for a region where both Denmark and Sweden have invested incredibly large sums in developing border cooperation – a border cooperation that is now in danger of being broken. I think this is so risky that we should be concerned about internal mobility from both sides of this Parliament.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. Madam Commissioner, I would like to thank you for your Between 1952 and 2015, there were no border controls between Denmark and Sweden, but now we who travel across the border between these two EU countries have had to get used to it. It has been going on for nine years – nine years. First it was said that there were too many refugees and now that the right to asylum has been broken, the Swedish government instead runs on the pretext that border controls are needed because of the general security situation. We now need answers from the Commission: How long should these border controls be allowed to last? And the worst part is not that the journeys are getting longer, but that there are many accusations that these border controls lead to a musty racial profiling. When are we going to get back to a normal situation where we can travel without being stopped and without people risking being controlled based on their skin color or their hair color?

Mr President, I would like to thank you. The Maduja refugee camp outside Goma in Congo is home to tens of thousands of people whose lives have been affected by the armed conflicts that have been going on there for decades. Many of the children growing up in Maduja know nothing but a life on the run, and now their lives are threatened by the spread of mpox. Despite the fact that there are effective vaccines that we have and that we refuse to let go of. At the same time as we gather here today, country after country in Europe is sitting on vaccine stocks that could save lives where the disease actually exists. For example, the Netherlands has refused to send a single dose of vaccine to the affected countries in Africa, despite the fact that the vaccine they have expires next year and becomes unusable. Sweden has done the same. It is a disgraceful act for a Union that tends to beat its breasts for its fine values. Early intervention saves lives and allows us to prevent the infection at an early stage. Vaccines save lives. International solidarity saves lives. That is why I call on the Commission to step up its efforts to reach out to our sisters and brothers in Maduja and all other affected fellow human beings with vaccines and other actions where mpox is a health disaster today.

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your Over 41,000 dead, over 95,000 people injured. The far-right Israeli government has completely bombed the health care system in Gaza. People have nowhere to escape, trapped on a dangerous strip of land. We know all this. I am proud that my country Sweden helped Ukrainian war refugees who were injured. But the same country now refuses to accept severely injured patients from Gaza, and there are words for that: Hypocrisy, racism. It is so obvious that the EU and Sweden believe that Palestinian lives are worth less. What we are witnessing now is genocide. We need an immediate and permanent ceasefire, we need to freeze the assets of the Israeli ministers and we need to ban them from travelling to the EU. To conclude, that the EU is not acting, it will go down in history as one of this so-called Union of Peace's greatest disgraces.