Speeches

The next item is the debate on the Council and Commission statements on the continuing threat to the rule of law, the independence of justice and the non-fulfilment of conditionality for EU funding in Hungary (2023/2985(RSP)).

Thank you very much, Commissioner, for all your answers and for participating, and of course thanks to everybody who took part in Question Time. That concludes Question Time.

Before I give you the opportunity to ask a follow-up question, I simply would like to remind you that we have a topic, and it really is a debate that’s focused on a topic. So please stick to that.

The next item is Question Time with the Commission. We very much welcome the Commissioner, who is coming straight from a trilogue, as I learned, into the plenary. So please, Commissioner, take a breath – but not too long because we have precious time we would like to really use properly. We are starting right now our Question Time and, again, I repeat: just 1 minute for everybody, for all Members speaking, 2 minutes for the Commissioner, 30 seconds for follow-up questions and then the Commissioner. And I start with our colleague from the European Parliament, Mr Kubilius.

The next item is the debate on the Oral question to the Commission on mental health at work, by Dragoş Pîslaru, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Kim Van Sparrentak, Elżbieta Rafalska, José Gusmão, Maria Walsh, on behalf of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (O-000041/2023 - B9-0030/23).

The next item is the debate on the report by Sabine Verheyen, on behalf of the Committee on Culture and Education, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common framework for media services in the internal market (European Media Freedom Act) and amending Directive 2010/13/EU (COM(2022)0457 – C9-0309/2022 – 2022/0277(COD)) (A9-0264/2023).

I just have to inform you that we have a technical problem right now. The clock is not working, so when you see 38 seconds on the screen, that is frozen. We just have to do that right now because we would like to continue with the plenary debate with our mobiles, so I am very sorry for that. You have all prepared your speeches and I am quite sure that you are aware of that, and we will solve the problem as soon as possible. Indeed the clock looks as if it is working again now, hopefully. Thank you for your understanding.

The next item is the debate on the recommendation by Jan Olbrycht and Margarida Marques, on behalf of the Committee on Budgets, on the interim report on the proposal for a mid-term revision of the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 (2023/0201R(APP)) (A9-0273/2023).

The Renew Group notified the President of a decision relating to changes to appointments within delegations. This decision will be set out in the minutes of today’s sitting and takes effect on the date of this announcement.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Firefighters are not only highly professional, they are also in high demand. With climate change, weather extremes are becoming more common. In one month, parts of a country lie under water and in the next, a landslide or forest fire devastates large areas. In such exceptional situations, the fire brigades are always in the first place. Our firefighters and firefighters are not only exposed to extreme stressful situations, but also to highly carcinogenic substances and often other dangers. And here, exceptionally, we must help them, namely by protecting our firefighters and their families in Austria, in the European Union, as best we can. This includes rules on decontamination. This includes the right equipment and tools as well as labour law instruments. And with that, we can effectively say thank you to all firefighters and firefighters. Thank you for your tirelessness, for your commitment, for your courage. Now it's up to us to protect you better.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, When is a kiss an unacceptable assault? The whole world has been wondering about this in the last few days. But the answer is quite simple: When consent is lacking. Consent is key: This applies to all interpersonal actions – even being able to actively say yes or no. And especially important: Give the other person the opportunity to express their own will. Only yes means yes, this must always apply. Be it at home, behind closed doors, be it in front of a running camera, when the whole world is watching, be it in sports, be it at work, be it privately between friends. It is clear: The kiss of Rubiales was unintentional, he was pressed without rejecting a chance, and thus a sexualized assault, an abuse of power. I hope that the global discussion about this has made at least one thing clear to everyone: What Consensus Means. Women's self-determination over their own bodies is still not self-evident. But it is a social necessity.

Madam President, Madam Vice-President of the Commission! I would like to focus in particular on micro-enterprises, because it is the very small companies in particular that are coming under increasing pressure. Every bookstore, every bakery, every tavern pays more taxes than the big companies. Because micro-enterprises cannot fix it by tax shifts, complicated legal constructs, that it somehow ultimately turns out the way they would like it to. You can't just avoid taxes and get more profit. And that is why I am pleased with yesterday's Commission proposal for better taxation of companies, BEFIT for short. BEFIT and the SME relief package are complementary. BEFIT should now uniformly regulate the taxation of the big, the huge corporations, so that everyone finally pays their fair share of taxes.

I am very happy to accept this proposal, as the results of the votes are scarce, and from now on I will have the amendments voted electronically.

As we have quite a long list of those who wish to participate as speakers in the catch-the-eye procedure, I will close that procedure right now as we already have a long list of speakers.

Before our next speaker, I would like to remind everybody – Mr Rzońca, you were quite shouting before – that in this plenary everybody should listen to each other, so please do that.

We will continue with our speakers list, but before starting I would like to remind everyone to stick to their speaking time, otherwise I will have to stop them. So please be disciplined.