Speeches

I'm sorry, colleague, this is against our rules. As much as you might feel, or the room might feel on this, we have clear rules about curse words and language that is inappropriate in this room. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but it is unacceptable even if you might have strong political feelings about this.

Dear colleague, there was no blue card, but I think the sentiment of the room was that you might have offended some of the colleagues. We continue the discussion with Rasa Juknevičienė. To the room, we have taken over 20 catch-the-eyes. At this point, I will close the catch-the-eye to give respect to the people who have followed all the debate. But blue cards are now open.

Mr President, Vipan Kumar is an Indian working in construction in Romania and yesterday he entered the middle of a frozen lake to save a little girl from drowning. He could have said very well: ‘I am a girl’s father, I am not interested, he is not my child, I am not involved’. But he got in exactly because he was a girl's father. And I liked so much this gesture of courage, of humanity, of altruism, which we rarely see anymore. Immigrant workers who work in Europe and contribute to our economies, to our lives, are often unseen. They pass under the radar like they don't exist, they're ants. In Romania, where they come from, there was even a deputy, Dan Tanasă is called, who incites hatred against them, said that Romanians should not accept food deliveries if they come from foreigners. And there was violence against these deliverers. So I firmly ask both the Romanian Parliament and the European Commission to look clearly at the situation of migrant workers and to protect them, because they are people like us.

Madam President, Swiss people are not part of the EU, so they don't get a vote in the EU, neither do North Macedonians. All of them have had sorrow when their kids went up in fire, a moment which you so kindly commemorated. The same happened to Romanian young people in Colectiv in 2015. So I urge you, Madam President, to give these parents more, to give them more than thoughts and prayers, to give them legislation. And I look to the Commission to ban fireworks once and for all, because they do harm on the outside to animal welfare, and they do harm on the inside to humans. Let us never let this happen again to any people in Europe.

Dear colleagues, in this moment, I have to close the blue cards. I love the debate, but otherwise you will not have a chance to have the catch-the-eye, and it would be disrespectful to those who participated in the whole debate.

The next item is the debate on the European citizens' initiative entitled 'My voice, my choice: for safe and accessible abortion' (2025/3007(RSP)). It is a great honour for me to introduce the following debate. Millions of citizens have fought for us to be able to have this debate and decide on this following point. It is also wonderful to see so many female colleagues, and I wish that male colleagues participate too, because this is not just about women's rights, it's about human rights.

The minutes of this meeting will be submitted to the Parliament for approval tomorrow at the beginning of the afternoon. The session is closed.

The next meeting will be held tomorrow, Tuesday 16 December at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the website of the European Parliament.