Plenary session
12 February 2026
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PLENARY European Parliament
Follow its sittings15:39 - 16:03
Speaker 1
Good morning, colleagues. You know, let's start. There are a bunch of them. Bunch report.
16:08 - 19:39
Speaker 2
Alex. The theme of the seventieth session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women this year is ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls. And this could not be more urgent or more fundamental. Access to justice is not an abstract principle. It is the difference between protection and impunity, between equality on paper and equality in reality.
Between rights promised and rights delivered. Around the world, millions of women and girls still face discriminatory laws, structural barriers, and institutional practices that deny them equal protection under the law.
Legal systems often fail survivors of gender-based violence, including sexual violence. And we are now seeing the Epstein papers that show things that happened and were reported almost four decades ago.
So, in addition, economic inequality limits women's ability to seek justice, and harmful social norms silence victims before they even enter the courtroom. If we are serious about gender equality, we must be serious about justice.
The European Union has long positioned itself as a global leader in gender equality and human rights. Our credibility on the international stage depends on the strength, coherence, and ambition of the position we bring to the CSW.
That is why the European Parliament, and in particular the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee, the Farm Committee that I chair, must be closely and meaningfully involved in shaping the European Union's position for this next session. In fact, the fund committee participated in the sales at CSW every year. We bring legislative expertise and democratic legitimacy. And we bring into the international arena the voices of European citizens, especially women and girls, but also men who are committed, though today there are not many MEPs here.
Around shameful, but never mind. That's normal in our debates. Early and substantive involvement of Parliament in the formulation of the European Union position is not a procedural step; it is a democratic necessity. Enhanced and sustained institutional cooperation between the Parliament, the Presidency, and the Commission is essential to ensuring a strong, unified European Union position.
An inclusive approach that strengthens policy coherence across institutions, enhances legitimacy, and increases the effectiveness of our engagement at the international level. When we speak with one voice, a voice shaped through today's democratic debate, that voice carries greater weight.
Access to justice must be inclusive. It must reach migrant women, women with disabilities, women in rural areas, LGBT and LGBTQI persons, and those facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, as is normally the case.
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