Speeches

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the report by Udo Bullmann and Petros Kokkalis, on behalf of the Committee on Development and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, on the implementation and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (2023/2010(INI)) (A9-0213/2023).

Madam President, Commissioner! The : What is this? That's nearly 12 million secret documents exposing the tax secrets of kings, presidents, stars, money launderers, fraudsters. In vain you are looking for nursing staff, craftsmen, craftswomen, saleswomen. This is clear: The offshore world is a world of the rich and super-rich. Up to $32 trillion is said to be hidden in tax swamps worldwide. Incidentally, this is more than the GDP of the United States, at a time when we are desperately looking for new sources of income. So what to do? The answer: We need more transparency, a coordinated approach to dry up tax hulls, both outside and inside Europe. Public CbCR, The Public Group Tax Transparency Directive, which we successfully adopted in 2021, is a start. But of course we need a lot more. It has to go much further. Let's get back the money that people deserve. There is enough money in this world. You just have to distribute it fairly. And to all those members that might hesitate still, I can really just say: This report is excellent. Vote for it!

The next meeting will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 13 June 2023 at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament's website.

I just simply would like to remind you not to speak longer than one minute, because these speeches are called one-minute speeches, so please try to be as disciplined as possible.

The next item on the agenda was one minute's speech on important political issues (Rule 172). I would like to draw your attention to the fact that you can take the floor for the one-minute speech from your seat.

The next item on the agenda is the brief presentation of Loránt Vincze’s report on the implementation of the European Citizens’ Initiative Regulations (2022/2206(INI) (A9-0182/2023).

The next item on the agenda is the brief presentation of the report by Álvaro Amaro on the evaluation of the new Commission communication on the outermost regions (2022/2147(INI)) (A9-0156/2023).

The next item on the agenda is the brief presentation of the report by Isabel Santos on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Union Agency for Drugs (2022/0009(COD)) (A9-0289/2022).

The minutes of today’s and yesterday’s sittings will be submitted to Parliament for its approval at the beginning of the next sitting. If there are no objections, I shall forward forthwith the resolutions adopted at today’s sitting to the persons and bodies named in the resolutions.

Calm down in the room! In order to proceed swiftly, the meeting will be suspended for a very short period of time – one or two minutes. - After the vote on the Commission proposal:

The Committee on Legal Affairs informed the President that the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Court of First Instance in Thessaloniki, Greece, has closed the case against Emmanouil Fragkos for which the waiver of Emmanouil Fragkos’ parliamentary immunity had been requested, as announced in plenary on 13 September 2021. This procedure for waiver of immunity has therefore been completed. The Committee also informed the President that the Committee has concluded that Article 8 of Protocol No 7 on privileges and immunities in the European Union does not apply to the request for protection of the privileges and immunities of Nikos Androulakis announced at the plenary session of 21 November 2022. Following the resignation of Nikos Androulakis as a Member of the European Parliament with effect from 3 May 2023, he no longer enjoys the immunity provided for in Article 9 of Protocol No 7, which is limited to the duration of the mandate of the Member of the European Parliament. Therefore, the proceedings concerning this request for the protection of its privileges and immunities are terminated.

Mr President, two years ago we were standing here and talking exactly about the same topic, talking about MeToo in the European Union institutions. Since then, we have launched two internal procedures in the European Parliament, thanks to the perseverance of a few people who I really would like to applaud for their efforts. In fact, it was actually five years, and not only two, since MeToo was first debated in this chamber. So you see, the resistance is still big from some within this House, from some people who are in power positions and do not see a need for changing the rules. So let me say to all those blocking people, this is about respect. Anyone can be affected by harassment. We all should be protected in cases of harassment. But even more so, we should be able to work without such a violation of our human rights. We all have a right to a safe and healthy workplace. We, the European Parliament, should be an example for other institutions with our anti-harassment measures as well as gender action plans. It’s high time we really treat each other respectfully and it’s high time we eradicate any form of harassment and have actions follow our often-repeated words.