Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is incomprehensible and offensive to our people that the government should not think about the respect and dignity of its citizens. These are not the words of Giusi Princi or any other secure MEP within these walls; I am the democratic cry of the Georgian president, a woman who risks her security and freedom every day to defend her country. Salomé Zourabichvili is not alone. Too many political activists face defamation, violence and death threats in EU candidate and neighbouring countries. This is also demonstrated by alarming data: Four out of five women parliamentarians in the world are victims of psychological violence, intimidation and verbal abuse; Two out of five even receive threats of physical or sexual violence. Colleagues, we cannot talk about enlargement and partnership without addressing these systemic injustices. Women's political participation is not a concession to be defended intermittently: It is a pillar of democracy. From Brussels to Tbilisi, from Kiev to Reggio Calabria, we must strengthen our actions against those who use misogyny as a political tool. To Salomé and to all the women who defy silence we owe more than a round of applause: We need concrete efforts to ensure that in every country, in the EU and outside the EU, the courage of a woman in politics is the norm and not the exception.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, one in three women in Europe experience violence in the course of their lives: In Italy alone, 100 women have been killed since the beginning of the year. This is unacceptable! Online violence is also a growing scourge. How extensive is it? We don't know. There is currently no harmonised definition of cyber-violence. It is time to fill this gap. As EPP we call for legislation that makes digital an opportunity, that improves the Violence against Women and Domestic Violence Directive, to be extended to all forms of sexual abuse, including non-consensual pornography. So let's look to the future with an action plan on artificial intelligence (AI). AI can and must identify signs of domestic violence through data collected from safety devices or apps, enabling immediate preventive responses, a rapidly developing field that we must regulate to protect women. To all the victims we say: You are not alone. We are all with you, without distinction of political color, because the only color that counts today is that of the orange flag that symbolically flies in front of the Parliament in Strasbourg. It is our duty to be the cry of those who have been silenced: We raise the volume on rights and stifle the deafening noise of violence.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, our ability to remain competitive and resilient depends on the quality of our skills. The Draghi report makes it clear that investment in this context is essential for training a highly skilled workforce. This is the only way to ensure that Europe has a role to play. leadership in key industries such as digital, green energy and sustainable finance. In the first twenty years of the twenty-first century we have witnessed forms of knowledge and innovative productions that, ultimately, with the advent of artificial intelligence, have generated profound professional changes. 56% of jobs are disappearing and will undergo massive transformations within a few decades. New challenges need to be addressed by rethinking new educational and training models. Europe is still lagging behind the US and China in investment, research and education. But even within the same continent we see the countries of the North investing more human resources than the marginal areas of Southern Europe. The EPP Group and Forza Italia, with their recent economic paper, strongly believe that the European Year of Skills should therefore be an opportunity to invest uniformly in research, education and innovation to stem the lack of skills and the deep shortage of skills supply and demand. Our commitment, however, cannot be exclusively technical. We need to ensure that access to skills is fair and inclusive: all must be able to participate actively in European growth in order to prevent technological progress from creating new inequalities.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, today, as we celebrate World Mental Health Day, it is essential to reiterate one concept loud and clear: There is no health without mental well-being. As a former school leader and vice president of the Calabria Region, I have seen how deep the wounds of the mind can be. Depression and anxiety, exacerbated after Covid, have in fact led suicide to be the second cause of death among young people. Three teenagers every day decide to take their own lives in Europe. As the EPP Group, we have long called for a European Mental Health Action Plan. We want quality access to psychological care for all citizens, especially for the younger generation. In my region, we have invested EUR 9 million to bring psychologists to Calabrian schools, but we need a European step forward. The European Union must put the health of our children at the centre. How many more lives will be ruined before we intervene decisively? As President Sergio Mattarella said: Mental well-being is a collective responsibility, everyone is called to do their part.