Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Ordinary meeting
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
FEMM European Parliament
Follow its sittings
Romana Jerković
On behalf of S and D, Sant, I will take the floor. Well, it's clear that menopause is not getting the attention it deserves. And, despite affecting millions of women, it remains surrounded by limited awareness, stigma, and gaps. And the fact that this is the first hearing on menopause in the European Parliament says a lot. It's a step forward, but also, it's a clear indication of how this issue has been overlooked.
Well, as you probably know, the European Parliament is currently working on a report on cardiovascular disease. And, as a repertoire for that report, I would like to highlight the link between menopause and cardiovascular diseases, an association that many women are still not aware of. It was very interesting, doctor Kissel, to see a slide showing the leading cause of that, the perception and the actual, leading cause, the reality. I mean, we know that decrease in the estrogen levels leads to reduced vascular protection and increased blood pressure, changes the cholesterol level and the fat distribution. All of these are key cardiovascular risks.
So I wanted to ask you, Doctor Kiesel, to what extent is this connection recognized in clinical practice? But then you depressed me because you said that often health care professionals are lacking the specific knowledge on menopause. So I was expecting, you know, that you will say rarely or some health care professionals, but you said often. I mean, that's really worrying. Thank you.
Well, I think we are sit.
Romana Jerković
Sorry. You will respond later. Now I will give the floor to coordinator Fem Johanna Schering Wilgus.
I don't know.
whether you know.
Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus
that histories are written now here every so often. This is a very important moment here in the European Parliament. It doesn't matter what political group you come from. The fact that we've all come here to talk about the topic of menopause, whether you're left or right, this is an issue that affects all women no matter what their political views are. Menopause affects 50 percent of the world's population.
It doesn't matter where you live, where you come from, what age you are. Sooner or later, half of the world's population will experience menopause. That means talking about it today is a very important event, and I'm very happy that we were able to have this conversation. This is the first time that we have a report about menopause. We're preparing a corresponding report.
This should be made in September. And by the end of the year or the beginning of next year, we will present our own report about menopause. It's very important, and I've heard in the speeches that this is a taboo, a taboo that continues in institutions and foundations that represent this, but there isn't a comprehensive study at a European level. It's important that we can look at the problem in this way. Mister Kiesl, what you said very much interests me.
The cost and the data that we've heard, a €190,000,000,000. Are these the yearly costs, or is this over several years? Because what's very important is that we know that menopause is a private experience that every woman has to go through no matter where she comes from, but it's a phenomenon. It has to do with public health, with the labour market, and with the economy. I'd like to thank you again.
This is the first time that we've been able to talk about the issue, hopefully not the last time. But what you said about the costs, that seems to me that so many people are affected by menopause, and that's why this figure is very striking. That's just a remark. Menopause has a connotation that at some point you have to be finished with this. But in our debates, we should look at menopause as being a beginning, because afterwards, there is a future. Maybe you can't call it menopause, but a mental start.
Gracias. Thank.
Margarita de la Pisa Carrión
You, chair. Thank you to all of the guests for giving us a very complete overview about a phase that we all go through. We change as women, we're always changing, but it's very enriching. We live in a constant contradiction, in a time where we try to put up different barriers. We never accept ourselves for how we are in every stage.
We always feel bad at 25, bad at 35, at 45, 55. We're always judging ourselves. Maybe what's happening in menopause is not a decline, it's a transformation. Of course, I see the problems that come with it, but it's important to open our eyes to the fact that there is a development in capacities that there are studies in this direction. Women are complex, and that is what is enriching.
This is our strength. Of course, there are negative aspects, but there are also positive aspects. And I think it's important to demonstrate these mature talents need to be valued. Women at this age can be satisfied, and stability is another important part. When menstruation ends, the hormones change.
There's also a transformation in the brain. This is a personal and psychological transformation. Priorities change. We have the flexibility to reinvent ourselves and adapt to new circumstances. Some people say that it's like waking up.
I encourage you, and I asked the guest today if we also have to deal with the positive aspects that, of course, we know there are positive aspects. We need to see this as society because if we don't give ourselves this value in our later stages, we realize that there are problems at every stage of our life. I see that being older is something that we have to promote. Women at this age have so much to give to society. Women that have raised society will continue carrying out so many different tasks in their work and expressing themselves in a different way, expressing this creativity and the stability in this maternity.
And this is my question. Do you think that there are positive aspects of menopause that are important to demonstrate?
Romana Jerković
You. We are moving on to the left group. Katharina Martins, you have the floor, please. Someone from ECR would like to take the floor. Left.
Romana Jerković
I'm asking first about the ECR. Is there anyone from the ECR who would take the floor on behalf of the coordinator? No. Okay. Then from renew.
Yep. You want to take the floor on behalf of Renew?
Yes. I am René.
Yeah. Please, you have the floor.
Billy Kelleher
Thank you very much. Firstly, thank you for your presentations. It is estimated that by 2030, 1.2 billion women will be experiencing perimenopause or menopause globally. These women constitute the fastest-growing group in the workforce. That is 11% of the workforce actually in the G7 alone.
We are talking about a significant and important demographic in our society. And despite its significance, menopause has historically been treated as a secondary issue, is not only underdiagnosed, but clearly is under-researched as well. Yet many women are left to cope with this, and it can be debilitating symptoms and side effects on their own because menopause remains shrouded in stigma. In many countries, menopause care is still not integrated into primary health care. In fact, the EU health committee conducted a public consultation on women's health, and the purpose of this was to gather real-life experience of women.
Alarmingly, menopause consistently ranked among the lowest scores for access to treatment and care, access to provision of information about menopause, and respect from health-care professionals. Finally, we cannot ignore the severe lack of funding for women's health care research that could open the doors to innovative new treatments to improve the lives of perimenopausal and menopausal women. In 2020, only 5% of global research and development funding was allocated to women's health research. So, with that backdrop in mind, I have a few questions. Firstly, to doctor Kiesel, should menopause treatment be routinely integrated into primary care, and how can we better educate health care professionals on menopause symptoms and ensure a far greater level of respect for women presenting with such symptoms?
And to Gabriela Conte, nowadays, with people living longer, fuller lives, menopausal women are still busy and thriving people in the workforce. And how can employers make provisions for menopausal women to support their treatment? And finally, to all, what is required to incentivize far greater investment, both private and public, into women's sexual and reproductive health, including menopause. And just finally, overall, I mean, we are conducting discussions in the whole area of gender inequality in health care. And it is very clear in the area of research and development that we have a long road to travel to try and highlight the inequalities both in health care, but in the investment that's required to ensure that we can develop treatments and therapies to assist women going through perimenopause and menopause itself.
So, hopefully, you might be able to throw some light on what we can do from our committee's report point of view to highlight these inequalities, but more importantly, to address these inefficiencies, to address the underlying problems. Thank you.
Romana Jerković
Thank you very much. Now I would like to give the floor to someone from Greens. Is there anyone here? If it is, then give the raise of hand. No.
Okay. From the Greens? Yes. From the Greens. Would you like to take the floor?
I'm not a coordinator.
Romana Jerković
It doesn't matter. Okay. So to take on behalf of the Wonderful. Yeah. Please, you have the floor.
Katrin Langensiepen
Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for the fruitful insights. I will switch into German. Thank.
Thank you for these reports. Women have learned to deal with pain and changes before and after birth. You have children. Then we were always told that this was normal. And the presenters said that there's a lack of information.
Women need to find this out themselves. I but I can go to the doctor, and I don't have to deal with pain. I've learned this over time, but I've seen this resembled in your reports. People are ignored. People are made fun of.
I'm people are saying that doctors don't have any idea. When you go to the doctors in your mid thirties, you're starting to change, they'll smile at you. And you think, I understand my body much better than you. In your contributions, you mentioned the menopause act. I think that was in the UK.
What can we learn from Great Britain? You've presented so many different requirements. Of course, we need explanations. We need information. But from your review, we're talking about awareness.
What can the parliament actually do, or what can member state A, B, or C do? I don't need to look at Germany. It's a disaster there. But what can where who can we take as an example? Where can we look to for which country we can learn something?
It's not always perfect, but, what do you think from your perspective?
Romana Jerković
And the last intervention on behalf of the coordinators is Katharina Martins, from left. You have the floor.
Kathleen Funchion
Sorry, chair. I'm speaking from the left, not Katharina Martins. Okay?
She's in the north of the
Yeah. It's okay. You can take the photo.
Kathleen Funchion
Thank you. First of all, I want to thank all of our guests today for all their contributions. And I think I know it's been said by a number of colleagues, but it is positive that we are having this discussion and that we're talking about a subject that for a long time was kind of taboo and wasn't discussed. And it is good as well that it was mentioned in our gender equality strategy and also referenced in relation to discussions about gender pay and pension gap, that the fact that this issue is kind of included in that, I think, is a positive. I just want to mention a few different things.
First of all, every woman's experience is different, and there are a lot of younger women as well that go through early menopause. So there is a range of different situations. We tend to associate it with a particular age category. A lot of women, for various health reasons or if they had to maybe have a full hysterectomy, go through early menopause, and that can be quite an isolation experience as well for them. So I think we need to remember that there is a range of different situations, and every woman's experience is different.
And some symptoms are very, very physical in nature and some are not so physical, but they all obviously affect your day to day life. And I think that in a lot of areas of women's health, I often think if we were talking about a topic that affected men, there already would be solutions. There wouldn't actually be any discussion because the solutions would be there, because just women are supposed to really put up with so much that just absolutely would not be the case for men and in men's health care. And I think the key thing I want to focus on and what I would like to see is what we see at health care level. There are so many it was referenced, you know, about people not being trained.
But really what this results in a lot of the time is medical gaslighting, where women are actually made to feel crazy, made to feel that they're imagining a situation, that they're imagining symptoms. And I think that there can be two negative effects of this. One, obviously, is that this if the situation is not taken seriously and you're supposed to just get on with it and it's at a certain point in life and you're supposed to put up with it. And the other thing for women as well, sometimes there can be other health situations going on. And as soon as you say you're 40 or you're over 40 or whatever age it might be, it starts like, oh, well, that's hormonal.
That's to be expected. So other situations can be overlooked as well. So there's two sorts of negatives to it. The situation itself isn't being taken seriously, and then it can lead to other, maybe, health problems and health conditions being overlooked as a result. So I think we should be really strong from fem. I'm speaking obviously from a fem point of view in relation to that medical gaslighting, because that's what it is.
And I think it should be a requirement, and we should be calling very strongly from this committee that a GP at your general practitioner level that you are trained to actually understand this. And, obviously, nobody can be an expert in everything, but that you would listen and then make sure that that person is referred on to the correct services and the correct consultant, because often it's at that very first point at GP level where women are just totally dismissed, and then they leave that practice and just, you know, feel devastated. And all of the effects that I know we've spoken about, economic effects in the workplace and everything. But, anyway, just to sum up, I think it's great that we've started a discussion on this. I think we need to continue it.
And I think if we're to focus on one aspect, it's to ensure that at that first point of contact with your doctor, that they are trained to understand that you may need to be referred on or there may need to be a range of services that you need. Thank you, chair.
Lina Gálvez
Thank you. Thank you very much. And now for the second round, I have, in my list, Maria Walsh from EPP, Eviteris Andikitis from S and D, Raquel Garcia, Emira Vandervale, and myself for a very short question because we are running out of time. So that is right. So, Maria Walsh, at least one minute.
Thank you, chair. Sorry.
Maria Walsh
And I didn't mean to be ignorant. I had a runoff for another meeting at five, but I'm delighted it worked out. I mean, you have mentioned, in great detail, the element of cost. And I would love to understand your perspective if we don't do this or we're not actioning across member states, because the big buzzword in any of the institutions, very much driven by the commission, is competitiveness. But yet to numbers, shared, 120,000,000,000 annually, is taken out of our global economy, if I'm phrasing that correctly, because of menopause related costs.
And if we're looking at 51 percent of our population in the long term, I assume that number will only go up. And I would love to understand that we deal with data, we deal with numbers, and sadly, numbers often drive versus emotional change, which should happen easier than it does. But I would love just to understand if we do not do any action that, in my eyes, we haven't done to date. Great to hear Ireland mentioned multiple times, but there's a lot of gap there too. Would love to understand your understanding on that. Thank you.
and Katis.
Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis
Thank you so much. Thank you. Excellent presentations. Really, a lot of arguments that we need to have. Women, health strategy, including the product of those menopause, and all others.
Of course, also keeping in mind that not the heart diseases, but musculoskeletal diseases and so on. I have a medical doctor. I know very well. And, of course, some, you know, obesity or all the complexity of issues. But my question is, do you have a real picture of all 27 member states where we have some strategies or those strategies don't exist?
Being minister of health of the Republic of Argentina, I did not win, did not convince the Italian parliament to adopt women's health strategy as a product, especially from religious, you know, arguments. Some were against. It would be very difficult now to also avoid such, you know, religious confrontation. Do you have some, you know, real examples? How many countries have such a very important comprehensive agenda?
Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle
Thank you, chair, and thank you to the speakers for the wonderful presentations, very rich and information. I would also like to apologize because right after I need to run to go to another thing, but we will definitely watch back the answers that you will give. So apologies for that. My question is as follows. I'm a 42-year-old woman.
Have had three children. I'm in good health, but I also know that something's happening, and something's changing. And, the first time that I mentioned the word perimenopause, mostly based on what I had seen in reels on Instagram of women who share their experiences to my practitioner, who is a she or was a she, she kind of laughed at me and, or just, you know, said that it was too young, too soon, and it couldn't be. So my question to you is in everything that you have presented, there's a lot of attention for menopause and also quite a bit for postmenopause, but I would like to hear a bit more about how you think about perimenopause and how we can integrate this also in the cycle of research and funding that we would like to promote as European Parliament, I hope. Thank you so much.
Lina Gálvez
Thank you. And I would like to make two very short questions myself. One is regarding misinformation because, probably, regarding the hormone therapy, we are in front of one of the oldest and more dangerous fake news. Just linking, if we are taking, we will die by breast cancer. So how has this misinformation been evolving?
We know we are facing an androcentric research and medical system that is clear that we are trying to change. But what about the specific misinformation and this kind of fake news? And the other question is regarding the workplace. Because the UK, I know because we did this question to the European Commission in the previous term. Just following what happened in the UK with this law, regarding menopause at the workplace.
My question is very simple. Normally, when we are discussing if maternity leave should be longer or shorter, one thing that we always put on the table is this idea that if they are very long, and, obviously, men are not taking at the same level, it could be discriminatory for women because employers will not employ those women knowing that potentially they will leave. In the menopause case, if this is linked to leaves or short days, whatever, could we have the same problem that employers would say in advance, no. I'm not taking women of that age or I'm not continue with this woman because of this law, when the menopause arrive, she will be not going to work or she will not attending as much as before. So could be any kind of externality on that move, on that, that we want to do.
So having said that, obviously, we are running out of time, but we started already late. So I will give the floor back to you for 2 minutes. So starting for you, professors. So the floor is yours.
Speaker 30
Asked me why hormone replacement therapy is seen in such a negative way. The background has to do with the women's health initiative that is a very random controlled study that took place in the United States, that refers back to chronic, untransferable diseases. This study ended several years ago because if the initial study showed an increased risk of circulatory problems in 2003, for example, all hormone therapy products had a black box warning against women and doctors receiving inform women were told by doctors that taking this medication increased the risk of dementia, breast cancer, and heart problems. This caused a wave of panic worldwide, and the rates of prescription decreased in the years after many other analyses were carried out. Very few studies were carried out, which has rehabilitated HRT.
Speaker 31
But this information that has long been in scientific circles has never properly come into the public. In November 2025, the FDA conference removed the black box warning from all packages, but I don't have the impression that this is a real revolution. The fear of breast cancer is still there.
Speaker 28
So I mean, any of the questions? Now you have two minutes to answer or to say whatever you want to.
Speaker 7
I think educating not only patients but health care professionals is a crucial moment. I think it's all over the place, the same. So you have to integrate it. And the only problem with menopause, it's not linked to one single organ. So it's not like cardiology and things.
So it's a complex thing. So you have to integrate it as a complex thing. So we have to move away from organ specific treatment and have it as a kind of a global matter. And I think you should make it very essential, because without educating health care professionals, many of these things will not work, because the treatments will not be applied. So you have to force the education of health care professionals during their studies and also during their training as young doctors.
Speaker 33
Thank you very much for all your questions. There were a number of very interesting questions. I don't really know where to start, but perhaps I could start with the last question. So what to do with women as they transition towards perimenopause, and the approach that employers should adopt? In some countries, the notion of menstrual leave already exists and is written into the law.
During perimenopause, we understand that women may not feel particularly well, so perhaps as well as a period leave, we could look at this, but of course it will be up to employers and member states to think about it. Women in perimenopause face twofold problems. Not just concerns from employers about what's gonna happen with this woman and what they'll be like at work, will they still be effective, but at the same time, we also have this problem of poor treatment of elderly people. There's no single magic bullet for this. Workplaces differ greatly.
For office workers, it's quite easy to find solutions. Perhaps I could work with my employer looking at setting the temperature to a certain degree or perhaps allowing a certain amount of flexibility in work. But on the other hand, if you have women working on assembly lines or in factories, they don't have this possibility, and it's very difficult for them to find solutions. For example, if women have to wear synthetic uniforms and work on an assembly line or production line, that can be very tiring for them. Perhaps we could think about other types of fabrics to make uniforms in the workplace.
Lina Gálvez
The floor to professor Conkey for two minutes, please. We have still another point in the agenda.
Speaker 1
Yes. So I'll briefly address some of the points that were mentioned. So, first of all, the importance of perimenopause, absolutely. That's what we're trying to do in our study, where we use the clinical diagnosis, which can start pretty much at any time during the menopausal transition. The issue there is, you know, to a good extent, a matter of data because it's very hard to understand where the transition starts unless you have information on the menstrual period, then you have on the symptoms, and that's not present in many datasets.
And already, like, very few datasets have any information at all. I mean, of course, HRT. So improving the data side seems crucial. I want to make a point as economists on the cost because I thought, I mean, quite clear that you can have pretty much huge variety of cost. And so when I hear cost like 120000000000 or whatever the number is, I urge you to be careful because you can literally combine different costs, I don't necessarily think that the bigger the number, the better.
The cost needs to be funded and possibly based on microstudies with a very strong, robust cost structure. Otherwise, they might undermine their meaning rather than enforce it. So third, as an economist, I very much believe in incentives, incentives for medical doctors, incentives for employers. Now if a medical doctor is not gonna be reimbursed for giving a diagnosis of menopause, where is the incentive on this side? And so I've learned today this very interesting fact that's happening in Germany.
I learned it last week in Japan. That's also the case for Japan. It was proposed in the last two years, but it was rejected. So incentives are key from every point of view. And then last but not least, on the employment point of view.
So UK has been quite active, both on the NHS side and on the workplace support side for promoting actions to favor menopausal women to help them during this transition. Now I very much agree with the idea that focusing too much on menopause only and the women only might actually have almost the opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve. And if you talk to an actual employer, they're gonna talk to you about where inclusivity is here. And when I present my work around audiences around the world, when men look at me, what about us? And, yeah, there is this thing called underpause.
We might like it or not. And I believe that if we try to address all these issues in a more inclusive manner, we probably go much further along the way of what we're trying to achieve. So point very well taken. Thank you very much.
Romana Jerković
Dear experts and colleagues, I would like to warmly thank you all for engaging contributions, and reach the discussion we have had today. We brought attention to an issue that, for far too long, remained on the margins. So it is important that today is not the end of the conversation, but it should be the beginning of a stronger and more coordinating engagement at the EU level. Thank you all very much.
Lina Gálvez
So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, because one of the key issues you say is raising awareness is what we are doing here. And we will be doing our report, as it has been said, in order to really help us to build up a real strategy and, to use, our power as politicians to make the best for our society, especially for all women. So, thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you to all of you. Thanks. And now we still have one point in the agenda on the impact of 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus women and girls committed by Turkish forces. So just a couple of minutes to change the table, and we will continue very soon.
So we are running late. So let's move to the presentation on the draft resolution, the impact of the 1974 Turkish invasions, see Cyprus Cypriot and girls, and the crimes committed by Turkish forces and consequences on gender equality. This resolution follows up on the mission to Nicosia. Cyprus organized with this committee on the March on the impact of conflict and post-conflict trauma on communities and particularly on women, girls. So I would like now to give the floor to the rapporteur, Eleonora Meleti, for five minutes.
So the floor is yours. Thank.
Eleonora Meleti
Thank you very much, my dear chair. Dear colleagues, today, we give voice to those, I beg your pardon. So we give a voice to all those women who really, all these years, during all these years, are living in the shadows. We bring into the parliament for discussion a truth, a truth which has not been noted as it should be. It hasn't spoken about it as it should, and it didn't find justice as it should.
Fifty years and more after the Turkish invasion into Cyprus, there are still women who are carrying within these sad moments, violence, being the fear that never left. And these women have not spoken for decades, not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't speak, because society was not ready to listen, because shame was transferred to the victims and not to those who were the perpetrators. Today, these women do not want revenge. They want the self-evident recognition, justice, and dignity. The sexual violence that was exercised then, there's not something isolated.
It was a tool, a war tool used, was an act of trying to destroy the social fabric. And this passed to the next generations. It passed through silence, through the stigma, and through the absence of justice. This discussion should, so we should clarify. It doesn't concern only yesterday.
It concerns today. When we talk about Cyprus, we're talking about European territory that's under occupation. We're talking about European citizens that were victims of war crimes, for women whose voice was silenced, and with great violence, it was silenced. And we have to break this silence. With this resolution and the oral question we are setting, we give the gender that is mentioned in these crimes.
That we say that there is a need for justice. We need support. We're requesting support for the victims and the families, and we call the European Union too big to follow its principles. We as the EPP, we believe in a Europe that does not forget. It doesn't compromise with impunity.
It respects and defends those who are victims of injustice. We cannot defend the rights of women internationally if we ignore our historical responsibilities. That's why I call upon you to support this initiative for women who have never spoken, for those who today find the force to speak, and in order to assure that no woman will ever need to be silenced again. Memory is not revenge. Memory is a precondition for justice, of respect and responsibility.
Thank you very much.
Cecilia Strada
Sexual violence is a brutal violation of human rights, and it's covered by the Geneva Convention, the Rome Statute, and the Istanbul Convention, whether in peace or war times. The use of rape as a tool of war in Cyprus has affected women in all communities: Turkish Cypriot, Greek Cypriot, Armenian, and several others. Rape as an arm of war has not been followed up. There has been impunity for decades. We see that part of it is because of systemic violence and gender inequality.
It undermines trust and reconciliation. The experience of women and girls across Cyprus who have experienced harassment and rape have led to trauma. And so I would just recall the legislation set out in the Istanbul convention. The commission is opening the route to this by establishing the concept of rape as whenever there is not a consent, but memory is not enough. Victims of gender-based violence have to have full access to legal, psychological, and medical help in every case.
Judiciary and police services need to have specialized training in sexual violence, and finally, victim support programmes have to be accessible, affordable, and adapted to the unique experiences of all victims to ensure that no one's left behind. Did you hear, could you speak a bit more slowly, says the chair? We want to have investment in policies that will support survivors across the EU, and we want to have sincere dialogue with civil society and international organizations, strong involvement of civil society stakeholders to put an end to impunity, to put an end to rape culture, and to build a future where justice and dignity will prevail for all, both.
Margarita de la Pisa Carrión
The patriots haven't looked at this report, so I haven't prepared anything. Apologies for that.
Jana Toom
Thank you. Thank you, chair. And I would like to thank the rapporteur for her work in preparing this draft resolution. In this committee, we know, unfortunately, very well that the perspective of women is often disregarded or forgotten in every aspect of life. And this is also the case for war and other violent conflicts.
And this is where we see such terrible schemes of injustice towards women and girls. The mission of the film committed to Cyprus brought us about the experience of some of the victims and the pain they went through. And the mission reminded us not only of how common sexual violence becomes during conflicts, but also that it's often used as a weapon of war against the other side. With this resolution, we have the opportunity to acknowledge the devastating impact on women and girls of the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey 52 years ago. We need to do this because the women that suffered this trauma deserve to have their suffering recognized, and they need to know that they do not deserve to feel the pain and shame that come with such terrible acts.
And we need to do this because we have to learn how to act better in times of conflict to protect all victims, especially women and girls that will be in a vulnerable situation. These are the two principles that should be the basis of resolution, and I have made my proposed changes to the draft resolution in this direction. We need to send a strong signal of support for the women of Cyprus and across conflict zones all across the world. Thank you.
Lina Gálvez
Thank you. Thank you, everyone. No, no one from the Greens. The left no. ESN.
No? So, I give the floor to other members requesting to take the floor, and I'm sure mister Pourlas would like to. So you have one minute. If it's a bit longer, it's fine.
Minute is more.
Loucas Fourlas
than enough. Thank you so much. I will continue in Greek. It's another thing. My colleagues, the smallest victim of rape was 9 years old, the youngest member.
It was raped in front of her mother, her father, and her brother, who was killed by the Turkish troops. The biggest victim was an old lady, 93 years old. She was raped by many troops, four Turkish troops. They raped her successively, and then they killed her. When we went to Cyprus and we lived the experience to hear women what they had to say after 54 years and to open their soul, this was something that gave us relief.
And it was the first time in the six years I'm an MEP where I saw the interpreters stop the interpretation because they couldn't continue. In May, we have a year from the mission in Cyprus. So we should vote this resolution in May in the 52 years from the invasion in July to pass it through the parliament. May it be a small medicine, something that will heal their wounds a bit. In Cyprus, we have grannies and mothers who have never spoken to their children about this, but they have the force.
They had the force to come to the mission because they had to make this to talk about it. Thank you.
Lina Gálvez
Thank you. Thank you very much. Indeed, as we have dealt with a few times already in this committee, the use of rape as a weapon is mostly completely condemned on the one. So, thank you. Thank you very much.
And, so the repertoire is not, and so, thank you very much. I wish you the best of luck with the head of the resolution that, obviously, I hope we will have passed. And any other business? If not, we'll finish our long session. Thank you to the interpreters and to everyone.
And then now we ask everyone that is not coordinators of their teams to leave the room because now we have to start our coordinators meeting that is starting already twenty three minutes late. So it will now start.
At seventeen thirty.
Lina Gálvez
Okay. So, thank you. So we'll start at seventeen thirty. So you have five minutes to leave the room. It's okay.
Thank you.
Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.