Speeches

Extension of the mandate of the Special Committee on the European Shield for Democracy. The Conference of Presidents, at its meeting on 22 April 2026, endorsed the request of the Special Committee on the European Shield for Democracy to extend its term of office by six months. This extension is necessary to enable the Special Committee to fulfil its mandate and carry out its tasks. If there are no objections to the decision of the Conference of Presidents, this extension shall be deemed to have been approved. We have received a request from the Patriots by roll call. If there is someone who wants to intervene? No. We proceed by roll call. Approved. The term of office shall be extended by six months.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome a delegation from the Cambodian Assembly, led by the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr SUOS Yara. The Cambodian delegation participated in the fifth EU-Cambodia IPM hosted by the European Parliament.

The next sitting will be held tomorrow, Tuesday 28 April 2026, at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament's website.

The next item is the one-minute speeches. I would like to inform you that, for the one-minute speeches, Members are invited to take the floor from their seats and I would ask all Members to remain strictly on time.

The next item is the report by Željana Zovko, on behalf of the Committee on Fisheries, on the role of ocean diplomacy for the competitiveness of EU fisheries and aquaculture (2025/2054(INI)) (A10-0043/2026) I would like to remind the honourable Members that there will be only one round of speakers from the political groups for this debate. Therefore there is no catch procedure and no blue card interventions will be accepted here.

The next item is the report by Lídia Pereira, on behalf of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, on financial literacy and the rise of financial influencers in the context of the Savings and Investment Union (2025/2209(INI)) (A10-0082/2026)

The minutes of yesterday's sitting and today's sitting will be submitted to Parliament for approval at the beginning of the next part-session. If there are no objections, I shall immediately forward the resolutions adopted at today's sitting to their addressees.

Let us move on to the explanations of vote on the report by Chloé Ridel and Hildegard Bentele ‘Global gateway – past impacts and future orientations’.

We move on to the explanations of vote on Kira Marie Peter-Hansen's recommendation for second reading "Scope of deposit protection, use of funds from deposit guarantee schemes, cross-border cooperation and transparency".

I declare the sitting resumed. The next item is the joint debate. Kira Marie Peter-Hansen report, under the rules of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, on the European Semester for economic policy coordination 2026 (2025/2214(INI)) (A10-0036/2026), and In the Riehl report, under the rules of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, on the European Semester for economic policy coordination 2026 (2025/2183(INI)) (A10-0033/2026).

I think it's a job to do all together: not only to build but also to redevelop. I have just mentioned the home plan of the Italian Government, which is about to see the light, precisely in the sense of redevelopment. So I think everything should be balanced: a new building must be balanced, the recovery of public and private buildings must be balanced and all these tools must be put into work, referring to the different cities in which this takes place – in Italian cities but also in European cities. In fact, we must not forget the specificities of inland areas, which have needs, and those of perhaps more congested cities, which have others. I believe that all needs should be balanced and that not all grass should be made into a bundle - as one would say in Italy - but policies that are useful to all citizens should really be created.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the report we are going to vote on today on the housing crisis marks an important step in the European debate on housing. For many years, the issue of living has been addressed above all in its social dimension, focusing on tools of public support and protection measures for those in difficulty. This report rightly maintains that focus but also introduces a broader and more concrete perspective. That is why I also consider it important that some very clear principles have been included in the final text, also thanks to the work of amendments that we shared during the work on the report. I am thinking first of all of the protection of the right to property and the condemnation of illegal occupations, because defending property means defending the trust of citizens and guaranteeing security in our neighbourhoods. We have also reaffirmed the central role of Member States and local authorities, with clear respect for the principle of subsidiarity. We wanted to draw attention to realities often forgotten in the European debate on housing., such as medium-sized cities, and on the need to support students and young families, who increasingly face difficulties in accessing the home. Finally, the text recognizes that, without more innovation, less bureaucracy and more housing, we will not be able to really face this crisis and this is precisely the direction that we see emerging today from some national policies. For example, in Italy the government led by Giorgia Meloni is working on a house plan that aims to recover the existing building stock and bring back to the market thousands of unused housing, concretely increasing the housing supply. Defending the right to housing also means defending the property, freedom and security of European families. Commissioner, I hope that all our work will not remain a dead letter, but will also be taken into account in a review of the European level of affordable housing.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is clear that more needs to be done to change the numbers and statistics that are making people angry and frustrated these days. But the pension gap between men and women arises well before the time when one withdraws from the world of work. The data are real but are above all the result of different life paths, often linked to family responsibilities. But clearly, the answer we encourage cannot be to penalize motherhood or discourage the family. On the contrary, we must encourage the necessary flexibility for companies and public policies to enable families to overcome the existing structural paradoxes and reconcile the different dimensions of life: There is a need for more childcare, greater flexibility in opportunities and greater access to women and supplementary pension provision. But it is also necessary for men to be placed in cultural and remunerative conditions in order to share family responsibilities more fully. This is why I have proposed the creation of a European Pact for Family and Demography, with the aim of making European policies that affect work, services and demographic sustainability more coherent. Because supporting the family makes the whole of society more just and sustainable, and because the existing gap stems from demographic imbalances that we must urgently reverse.