Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I appreciated the report and the work done by the Court of Auditors, in particular the assessments made in relation to the risks associated with the additional costs of financing the RRF. It is well known that, due to the rapid increase in interest rates, the additional costs of borrowing from the RRF under the current MFF could range between EUR 17 and 27 billion. In order to meet these higher costs, I believe it is necessary to provide for new own revenues and at the same time make use of the so-called cascading mechanism, provided for in the agreement with the Council of last February, which gave rise to the EURI instrument. Otherwise the only alternative will be budget cuts, budget cuts that we cannot allow, also because this is a budget already weakened by inflation. The European economy, as the Draghi report says, is relaunching with investment and not with cuts.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission, I share the position expressed by our rapporteur, Mr Negrescu, and I do not at all share the Council's position of disavowing the Next Generation EU interest payments agreements and cutting the Horizon, Erasmus and other programmes by around EUR 1.5 billion from the 2025 budget, thus weakening the economy and competitiveness of the European Union and the Member States. I therefore agree with the position of the Committee on Budgets to reject the cuts and to increase appropriations for research, health, Erasmus, agriculture, the environment, humanitarian aid and the European Public Prosecutor's Office. President, Commission, colleagues, the growth and competitiveness of the European Union and its Member States is being revived by strengthening investment and rejecting cuts.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I think we must strongly support the G20's proposal to tax the incomes of the super-rich properly in order to reduce poverty and inequality. A programme supported by Democratic Party Secretary Elly Schlein and the S&D Group for a fairer tax system to ensure essential services to citizens, such as health and education, and resources to invest in jobs and the green transition. Everyone is required to contribute to public expenditure because of their ability to pay. "The tax system is informed by progressive criteria" reads Article 53 of the Italian Constitution. Because it is right that those who have more, pay more and those who have less, pay less. Europe must condemn tax amnesties and must fight tax evasion also in order to reduce the taxation of the middle classes, workers and pensioners. The recent directive on minimum taxation of 15% for multinationals is a step forward. We continue in this direction for a fairer tax system and a fairer society.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you, Mr President, also for having wanted this sitting. It is an honour for me to remember in this Chamber Judge Paolo Borsellino and the agents of his escort Agostino Catalano, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina and Claudio Traina, people heroically engaged in the fight for legality, killed by the mafia in my city, Palermo, on 19 July 1992. After many years we join the pain of the families of the victims, who still today ask to know the truth about the massacre. Among the family members I would like to mention Rita Borsellino, sister of the judge, who was a Member of this Parliament in the seventh legislature and who, after the massacre in Via D'Amelio, spent her life to spread the values of legality and justice, especially among young people. I am sure that in this parliamentary term, under your leadership, President, the European Parliament will work with the same commitment to the same values.