Speeches

Mr President, I am angry because this debate that has to be about anti-discrimination started with Mr Ciriani, who said that the Roma are stealing, and Mr Mazurek, who said that the Roma are making a family business out of having children. It is not possible to accept this in the European Parliament. It's not possible, it's shameful! And you know what's even more shameful? It is shameful that Roma are in segregated schools, are discriminated against in employment, live in poverty, 77% of Roma children do not finish school, and only 28% of adults manage to have a child. job legally paid, that the life expectancy of Roma in my country is 10 years lower. These are things that we should be ashamed of. And it is not just the problem of the Roma community, it is the problem of all of us, of the European Commission, of the European Union. In this respect, because we are talking about a strategy for Roma, how can we talk about a strategy if we withdraw the anti-discrimination directive? Please take her back to the table. Please ensure equality for the Roma.

Madam President, I have a message to every European: when they spit on our European values, we do not apologise for them, we do not explain ourselves for them – instead, we pick them up and put them in an even shinier place for everyone to see. I'm so tired of us being always in a defensive mode, as if we apologise for something, as if we look for a world that isn't there anymore. For today's world, Europe needs again the path of unity, of standing together, of strength. We need to be adults responsible for ourselves. We don't need to point to the outside. We need to look inside and really work hard. This continent will prevail because it is what humans have aspired to for so many centuries. Do I need to remind the House that this continent only had peace when it was together? For the rest of its historic millennia, it only had war if it was not united. It is time to make Europe believe in itself again. It is time to have a more united Europe again!

Now, Mr Commissioner, I invite you to respond. I would like to particularly ask you, if you heard the information in the room that was not accurate, that you address it for the members of our audience.

Mr Sanchez, you have misused your speaking time since we are debating the European budget. Your colleagues all follow the same rules, you have to follow them too.

The next item is the debate on the report by Andrzej Halicki, on behalf of the Committee on Budgets, on general guidelines for the preparation of the 2026 budget, Section III – Commission (2024/2110(BUI)) (A10-0042/2025).

Madam President, (the beginning of the intervention was not done on the microphone) We are both Romanians and last night we heard a well-known voice in Romania, of populism, which said that the European Union does not want your diaspora at home, because Europe needs salahors. And frankly, I hate that term, salahors, because no one who works should be demeaned. Work and craft are gold bracelets. There is no shame in doing any work. And we need to protect everyone in Europe, those who are building Europe today, people who are working in construction and from their hands are building construction sites all over Europe today, including in us. Moni, who works in agriculture and who, out of the sweat of her hands, feeds us all, as the famous pictures on the Internet say, and nobody appreciates it. Cristina, a doctor in a Western country who takes care of patients, many of them Romanians. So my message to all these people is this: be proud of what you are doing, because it is a pride to build this continent. And if you have problems, come to us, come to Roxana Mînzatu, let's solve them. Don't go to the populists, they don't have any solutions.

Madam President, based on the rule of law and based on democracy, having such a debate would undermine the very principle of legality in the middle of an ongoing election. Let me tell you something: the proponent that came with this proposal tonight, his party leader yesterday incited 'skinning alive' those who he considers responsible for this – and this in the middle of riots that were violent. Enough with the violence. He said it was a metaphor. Well, a metaphor is what Shakespeare said, that the world is a stage. A metaphor is not when you say 'skinning people alive', when you put women down, when you put minorities down, when you go against the constitutional base of the country, when you say that ethnicities are less than people. So enough with the hate. Let's not export the hate. Romanians deserve a European, modern, democratic life.

Mr President, many of us believe that we are living in the century of artificial intelligence, of TikTok, of technology. In fact, we live in the century of loneliness and those Tech guru who say that money is everything, that cryptocurrencies, that values, billions - huge, are, for me, also an expression of their loneliness. But I am concerned about young people, who are experiencing anxiety, depression, burnout. Tell them what else? To tell us that their hair is falling out from stress? That they don't have help in the worst of times? By the time they're 20, they're exhausted. That can't be our answer. I stand here, in front of you, as Vice-President of the European Parliament, but also as a person who benefits from therapy and enjoys it, saying that we need to help young people in Europe. No one should be left behind! They're not alone! And not only in the rich countries that can afford it, but in every member state of the European Union, we should have a minimum number of guaranteed therapy sessions for all. Because mental health is not a fad, it's health. Point.

Your group is fighting hard on migration. What do you think will happen to people who are left without means in North Africa, in the Saharan region, who are left to climate change, to war, to war of water, of resources? Where would they go? Where would they go if we don't help them where they are? If we don't help them develop where they are? Aren't you by having this argument, by bowing to King Trump, aren't you in fact going against your own policies on migration?

We are opening the debate on Council and Commission statements on the political crisis in Serbia (2025/2554(RSP)) with statements by Mr Adam Szłapka from the Council.

We are opening the debate on the political crisis in Serbia and I would like to welcome a delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, which is in Parliament for the 16th meeting of the EU-Serbia Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee. (The speaker uses a non-EU language) We are happy to have colleagues from Serbia here in the middle of the European Parliament. For me and for many others, all the Balkan countries, including Serbia, belong to the European space. We are waiting for them in Europe!

Thank you, Mrs. Vautmans, although I note that it is not point of orderBut I understand the feeling of debate. That concludes today's debate.

The next item is the debate on the Council and Commission statements on the escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (2025/2553(RSP)).

I would add, as president of this sitting, that Nicolae Ceausescu was also the source of millions of crimes in Romania. But we are not having a debate on this and I give the floor to Mrs Šuica from the European Commission.