Speeches

Mr President, do you know what is the most important thing I have learned in recent years while helping children and young people, many of whom are disadvantaged. They can, they have the talents and the desire. What they lack is opportunity. You just have to give them a chance. They have all the qualities to succeed, and their potential and desire surpass our rhythm. In order to meet their potential, we need to provide not only more, but also more diverse and quality development opportunities. The European Schools Alliance is exactly the chance they deserve. For this Union of Schools to be successful, it must not simply repeat old practices in a new format. I call on the European Commission to open up the Union of Schools to a wide range of mobility activities, including non-formal forms of education such as summer camps focusing on art, sport and language skills. One of the reasons why I have the opportunity to be here today among you is that I have promised the people of my country to fight for this idea, because it is what can make children and young people in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, but also in France, Germany and Spain, to be able to accept deep within themselves the truth that Europe, that is all of us. We need to make citizenship education a priority of the Union of Schools, for this Union to be successful, it must reach the most vulnerable children and young people. I know from personal experience that success depends on the ability of schools to participate in such projects. That is why we must do everything to prepare teachers and ensure that application and participation procedures are simplified and targeted at children with the fewest opportunities. The more we support teachers, the better the students will develop. As regards the structure of the Union, let us learn from the experience of European universities, which organise themselves thematically. I think it would be appropriate to encourage schools to also form alliances thematically on sport, art, and also on professional sectors. This will allow us to stimulate from the very beginning the deepening of their teaching methods and the deeper profiling of teachers as specialists. The European Schools Alliance, the Union of Schools, is a unique opportunity for our children across Europe. I call on both the Commission and all my colleagues here, who care about the fate and future of children, to work together to make this union a success and for our children to one day show their children that Europe is the best place in the world.

Colleagues, there are still children in Europe who do not know how to read, write and think, not to mention their skills in chemistry, physics, biology, and until we take care of them, how can we talk about a competitive Europe? I am glad that the Skills Union first offers a financial support scheme for children and young people who have problems acquiring these skills. We also need to further deepen the focus on citizenship education in the Basic Skills Action Plan. I therefore propose a pilot initiative for children's civic education camps. I am very pleased that progress has been made on the idea of the European Schools Alliance. If we want our children to receive the best education and mobility opportunities, as well as the best teachers, we need permanent structured and facilitated European cooperation. The European Schools Alliance is a big step in this direction.

Ms Mizatu, the European Social Semester must be a tool to achieve our 2030 targets on employment, skills and poverty reduction. I put our children first because they are our future. We need to adopt a special budget for the European Child Guarantee. Children must also be an integral part of the European Union's new anti-poverty strategy. For people with disabilities, we propose the creation of a European Employment and Skills Guarantee. We are taking care to complete deinstitutionalisation and, for the first time in the European Social Semester, we call on the Commission to deliver on its commitment to the status of artists. With regard to vulnerable groups such as Roma, concrete action is needed and the issue is no longer to claim equality, but to actually ensure access to education, employment and basic services.

Madam President, the first newspaper in Europe was printed more than 400 years ago here in Strasbourg. It's a good thing we're having this debate here. With this debate, we honor the memory of murdered journalists. There are places in Europe where it is easier to kill all journalism and replace it with poisonous doppelgangers. Therefore, it is very important from this tribune to say the following: “This experience will not be successful!” I am delighted to be part of the group that will oversee the implementation of the European Media Freedom Act, and I am grateful that we are on this mission together with people like Commissioner McGrath, who will oversee media pluralism and the safety of journalists in Europe.

Madam President, in my country, Bulgaria has thousands of children placed in institutions called FTCs. The situation is similar in Romania, Greece and other European Union countries. When I meet these children, they often ask me what is the relationship between resolutions, conventions and what is going on in our lives. Because while the convention promises us access to education, reality guarantees us a lack of a normal cultural and social life. We've been chosen here to change that. From my meetings with future Commissioners Munzatu and Mikalef, I have the impression that they are strongly motivated to improve the situation of children. We at Renew Europe have concrete proposals that we will present in the coming months. I see that in almost all groups there are people who would like the situation of children to improve. And I urge you to come together to show that these are not empty words, but real actions for the benefit of children.

Mr President, honourable Members, we are talking here about new technologies and social networks and we say that they are part of young people's lives, but for many young people social networks are not part of their lives, they are their whole lives and that is a problem. It is a problem because, in addition to wasting time, a person becomes a much easier victim of propaganda, radicalization or a conduit of hate speech. Think about how many of you in this room, if you had the chance to return to your childhood or youth, would spend time on social networks. I believe that the solution to the problem we are discussing is in education, in an education that prepares young people for the modern reality and explains to them a simple truth that there is not a single successful person in this world who spends his main time on social networks.

Mr President, Commissioner, engineers, IT specialists, chefs, the European Union is facing labour shortages for many professions. In my country, businesses have huge problems finding the right people. Mario Draghi's report calls for a fundamentally new approach to skills, and I agree. But when we talk about competitiveness, we must also talk about the European social model, because it makes Europe the best place in the world to live and work. To solve the problem, we need to strengthen our strategy for upskilling and reskilling workers, as well as activating the entire working-age population with personalised support. There is still untapped potential in our regions. We also need to attract talent from all over the world, so EU Talent Pool will be of great importance. It must promote legal employment by ensuring safety, efficiency and adequacy. It is time to create the right tool that benefits both employers and jobseekers.

Mr President, G20 ministers have called for inequalities to be reduced and for no human being to be left behind. Now, however, the time has come to move from calls to concrete action. Inequality is the curse of our society. They hinder many things, including access to training and access to jobs. I believe that the best policy to reduce inequalities is to prevent them. And here I am talking about policies aimed at our children. We need to invest more in young people to break the cycle of poverty once and for all, especially for disadvantaged children, who very often do not have good conditions for their development. I call on the leaders of the G20 to make an effort so that together we can improve the lives of these children, and we must do everything in our power to ensure that every child finds a home and a family in which to grow and develop. Children should receive full support to ensure their socialisation and access to educational camps, extracurricular activities, culture and sport. Finally, I would like to call on European leaders: it is high time to adopt a European anti-poverty strategy that addresses all its aspects, and this strategy must focus on children as a priority.