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PLENARY European Parliament
Follow its sittingsRoberta Metsola
These are protection of groundwater, harmonizing certain aspects of insolvency law, early intervention measures, conditions for resolution and funding of resolution action, and valuation services, and scope of deposit protection. We now come to the order of business, the final draft agenda as adopted by the conference of presidents on April 22 pursuant to rule 163 has been distributed. I'd like to inform you that I have received a request for urgent procedure from the EPP group pursuant to rule 170, paragraph six, on the following proposal, convention establishing an international claims commission for Ukraine. The vote on this request will be taken tomorrow. If adopted, then the vote will be held on Thursday.
Recordings with rule nine, paragraph nine, the following reports are added to the final draft agenda for a vote tomorrow, on Tuesday. Report of Mr. Vasquez Lazara on the request for the waiver of immunity of Patrick Yaki. Report of Miss Pascal Piera on the request for the waiver of the immunity of Daniel Obaytech. Report of Mister David Corman on the request for the waiver of the immunity of Tomas Buchczak. Report of Mister Dominic Tarchinsky on the request for the waiver of the immunity of Diana Jovanovichi Soshawaka.
Report of Mister Vasquez Lazaram on the request for the waiver of the immunity of Gregor Brown. Report of Mister Mario Furore on the request for the waiver of the immunity of Alvis Perez. Now we move to the changes requested by political groups. The PFE group has requested that council and commission statements on the signing of one Europe, one market road map be added in the afternoon tomorrow after the presentation of the better regulation communication. As a consequence, the city would be extended to 11 p.m.
The statements would be wound up with a resolution to be voted at the next part session. So I give the floor to Miss Ehlers to move the request.
Marieke Ehlers
Thank you, madam president. On behalf of the Patriots, I request adding to the agenda a council and commission statement on the so-called one Europe, one market joint declaration that was signed last week. What has been agreed by the three institutions is not a simple declaration. It is a road map with political direction, legislative priorities, and timelines. The place to decide on such matters is here in the hemicycle.
That is the democratic way. Parliament's position must be anchored in the plenary, and that step is missing here. If parliament is to be associated with this roadmap, it must first form its position openly and transparently. Otherwise, we set a precedent where parliament is pre-committed elsewhere and only informed afterwards. That does not solve Europe's problems.
It amplifies them. For these reasons, we request that this item be placed on the plenary agenda to be concluded with resolution and to be voted on this session. Thank you very much.
Roberta Metsola
Thank you, Miss Ehlers. I give the floor to any colleague to speak against this. No. So we put the request to the vote by roll call. Vote is open.
The vote is closed.
Roberta Metsola
It's rejected, so the agenda is unchanged. Now for Wednesday, the ESN group has requested that council and commission statements on limiting EU legislation in light of recent calls from certain member states be added in the afternoon after the topical debate. As a consequence, the sitting would be extended to 11 PM. I give the floor to Miss Christine Anderson to move the request on behalf of ESN.
Thank.
Christine Anderson
You, president. In the name of ESN, I request putting on the agenda the council commission statement on limiting EU legislation. Azerothandelein today is meeting, Friedrich or is being called upon by Friedrich Matsen Berlin today to put the focus back on competitiveness. All of this led by the CSU would be easy to roll back. Legislation. But if proposals even from within our ranks aren't enough for the commission to ensure that their president delivers, then that is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
It could be so easy. In this house, we have a majority for cutting red tape and boosting competitiveness. Also, the Fond du Lac needs to be aware of this majority, so we should add this to the agenda. Limiting EU legislation needs to be discussed in this house and rolled back from this position.
Roberta Metsola
Thank you, Miss Anderson. I give the floor to anybody who would like to speak against. Mister, okay. Let's see. Mister Seaper first, and then mister Dzhofsky quickly.
Thank.
Lukas Sieper
You, Mister President. I learned from our dear colleague, Mister Simon, that the European Parliament only takes debates on topics of interest to the citizens of the European Union. The deception of the ESN is simply not of interest to the citizens of the European Union. Thank you very much.
Tomáš Zdechovský
would like to say that I fully agree with my predecessor. Also, I think that he said absolutely clearly that my colleagues from ESN have a one-minute speech. Also, in one minute speech, they can declare all the things what they needed to declare, and this is absolutely of European topics. Thank you very much, madam chair.
Roberta Metsola
Alright. Let's place the request to the vote by roll call. Vote is open. Vote is closed, and it is rejected. And therefore, the agenda remains unchanged.
That means that the agenda is adopted, and the order of business is established. Now we have some points of order. I start by giving the floor to Ms. Hannah Neumann.
Hannah Neumann
Thank you, president. This is a point of order in line with rule 202 of the rules of procedures. Nasserine Sotater was awarded the Sakharov Prize in 2012, and she was abducted by the Iranian regime just 25 days ago and is now held in an unknown location. She was abducted because she denounced the January massacres. She was abducted because she spoke out against executions, because she protested against mandatory hijab, and because she defended those in court who refused to support the tyranny of the Islamic regime.
Nazrin is also mother of two, and she has already spent too many years in prison, and yet she never bowed. So no, should we. Therefore, I urge you, President Metzola, as you announce, to convey this parliament's deepest outrage to the Iranian regime and to formally demand Nasrin's immediate release and the release of all political prisoners. And, dear colleagues, let us send a clear signal to those negotiating in Islamabad right now. No deal, no handshake will get our blessing unless this regime opens the Internet, stops the executions, and releases all political prisoners.
Thank you very much.
Including Nazrin and Nargas.
Lukas Sieper
Thank you, madam president. Ten four. Dear colleagues, modern society turns young men weak and gay, and they just need to go to the gym more. That is a take our colleague Mister Mazurak made in an interview with the influencer Ada Luch, filmed on the premises of the European Parliament, claiming that people are what they are for any other reason than how God or nature, if you prefer, made them is hate speech. Mister Mazurek joked in the comments of his own post that he had now made people in the European Parliament angry.
Let me be clear, dear esteemed colleague, I am not angry. I am sorry for you. I am sorry that you need to hate others to not feel weak. Madam President, this parliament is slowly turning into a breeding ground for hate speech. It is on us to stop that.
Thank you very much.
João Oliveira
Thank you, madam president. Article 173 to express disappointment by the fact that the European Parliament is still rejecting a debate which looks at protecting workers' conditions and improving the situation and driving forward progress, especially at a time when these rights are under attack in a range of European countries, including as a result of increase of cost of living and reduction in the employment law. Now this is absolutely a vital debate. People agree that this is a key issue. Now when we look at the agenda, on for the European Parliament, there's never a space found to have a debate on this policy area, which is absolutely vital when it comes to people's living conditions, working conditions in the EU.
We will continue assisting on this until this debate is held. We will never walk away from defending workers' rights or from the jobs we fight for progress.
Now to Miss Hilde Woutmans.
Hilde Vautmans
Thank you very much, President. Dear colleagues, I would like to make a point of order based on rule 150. April 25 marked ten years, colleagues, ten years since the Swedish Iranian academic, Ahmadreza Jalali, was sentenced and arrested in Iran. Ten years. He is currently the longest-standing EU citizen held hostage by the Iranian authorities.
And like Hannah asked, we have to ask to continue his release. On this heartbreaking anniversary, I call on you, president, colleagues, to keep on taking action to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Jalali, just like we did in our last resolution in this case. And colleagues, we must never give up. Two weeks ago, the Belgian-Portuguese citizen, Joseph Martin Figuera, was released thanks to our resolutions. So, president, please continue the pressure.
We need to save our European citizens now. Thank you.
Roberta Metsola
Thank you very much, Miss Woutmans. Now I give the floor to Mr. Shaun Kelley.
Seán Kelly
Thank you, madam president. Colleagues, I would like to bring your attention back to July 2025, when we voted on an urgency resolution on Ryan Cornelius, a British businessman married to an Irish woman who's been overtly detained in Dubai since 2008. Today, Ryan Cornelius turns 72 years old. Under UAE law, prisoners over the age of 70 should be released. Yet Ryan remains behind bars.
The April 27 marks the anniversary of Ryan's sentencing, a sentence which was retroactively extended by 20 years, violating human rights standards. Despite the authorities having already seized all of his wealth and assets, assets worth far more than the alleged debt in question, they continue to insist he will not be freed until that so-called debt is paid. As we negotiate a trade agreement with the UAE, which I fully support, I ask colleagues to raise Ryan's case during negotiations. We renew our call on the UAE authorities from July. Free Ryan Cornelius and free him now.
Remago Dukran.
Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy
Thank you, madam president. I refer to rule 44. That's about parliament's right to the access of documents. And this is about the fact that the European Commission most probably will publish a report later this week on the simplification of the deforestation law, the EUDR. We all know that the EUDR was postponed by one year due to IT problems.
I requested five months ago certain documents. I'm waiting now for five months for one sentence being disclosed, and I'm still waiting for documents that prove the fact that there are IT problems. I would like to ask you, madam president, to ask the commission to provide these documents before Thursday this week, when this new proposal of the commission will most probably be published. Thank you.
Roberta Metsola
You. I give the floor now to Michael Vavlicekiewicz. Be a second. Let's wait for your microphone to be on. 751.
K. It's on. Next to you.
Okay. No. It hasn't worked.
Michał Wawrykiewicz
Yes. There you go. Thank you, madam president. Dear colleagues, I would like to make this point of order on the basis of rule 179. We are holding our first plenary session after the Hungarian elections, and this electoral shift in Hungary is not just a change of government in one of the 27 EU capitals.
It is removal of the Russian Trojan horse and of a roadblock to European security. For years, European unanimous voice was held hostage by Viktor Orban that traded our security for the Kremlin's benefit. For years, the Kremlin has counted on a divided Europe. Did that era end, and now symbolically, Viktor Orban is planning to move out of Europe. Now is the historic window of opportunity to regain our European unity.
As Russian remains the preeminent threat to our collective peace, we can finally move past the era of vetoes and extensions. We are now positioned to build a continuum of true military resilience of democratic member state. Let us thank you very much. Regain unity to secure our borders and our future. Thank you.
Roberta Metsola
Thank you. That closes this part of the session. So the next item on the agenda is the report by Mister Ericsson, control of the financial activities of the European Investment Bank Group, and will report 2024.
Christel Schaldemose
So, dear, we will now start. The next item on the agenda is the report by Mister Ericsson, control of the financial activities, in the European Investment Bank Group annual report 2024. And we will begin with the rapporteur, and I will give the floor to Mr. Ericsson, please.
Thank.
Dick Erixon
Thank you very much, madam president. Europe needs private capital. We need risk capital. We need to achieve growth, and we need to be less cautious. We need to look at the realities here.
We need to see the impact this has on our competitiveness. This is where the EIB fills a gap given their lending. However, this does bring risks in itself. If you're investing your own money, then people are more involved in the risky investments you may put your money in. If things go badly, then you lose your money.
You lose your own money. Obviously, with EU level, we're using taxpayers' money. It means it's easier to invest in potentially promising products, investments, and the consequences aren't as great. At times, certain projects are considered too optimistic. There's the Northvolt project, which received over €1,000,000,000 from the EIB, but they declared bankruptcy last year.
We call for an exhaustive analysis of how the risk and evaluation was conducted in all green investments. There's a huge political will in this area. Does this mean that the EIB is taking on excessive risk with public funds? Is it doing this from an ideological point of view? Also, energy as well.
It's important that we're talking about the technological neutrality. What does it mean? This means we can invest in nuclear energy, for example. In the report, we also speak about working with non-EU countries. And we need to have a range of requirements, for example, for dealing with non-EU countries.
For example, these big countries should receive back migrants who don't have a right to remain in the EU. We also call for an increased level of transparency in the EIB. Now when you compare the EIB with other international, multilateral banks, then the situation is very different. We want the European Court of Auditors to have the possibility to audit the EIB. Now we do welcome the fact that there's working with Olaf, EPPO, and Europol when there is suspicion of fraud.
Now we speak about the role of the EIB, and we say that we want to strengthen its role in funding security and defense in Europe. We want to make funds available for this. Our report maintains the fact that the EIB needs to be rigorous when it comes to providing guarantees for investments which have a cross border nature. We also set out that it's very important to focus on added value. We need to look at what the added value is when we analyze the investments that are going to be taken.
We shouldn't only be looking at volumes and figures. We need to look at how the EU actually benefits from this. So as we say in Sweden, where the hell the money is going, what we're getting for it. So European added value is absolutely vital here, and there's our reports that's out to justifications for all of this. Moreover, we have to recognize that the EIB has produced stable outcomes and has a triple A rating.
So I'd like to thank the shadow reporters from the British control committee for the excellent cooperation in the Drunox report.
Christel Schaldemose
President of the European Investment Bank, Mr. De Groot, please. The floor is yours.
Robert De Groot
Thank you, President, honorable members, commissioner. It's my pleasure to be here today to address the report prepared by Miss Ericsson and update you on the activities of the group. The IB Group is in full throttle both in supporting EU economic resilience, competitiveness, autonomy, and strong financial performance at the same time. And it is important for all our citizens, for the EIB, to contribute to energy security, cohesion, innovation, and support to SMEs. And I'm grateful the report welcomes the EIB's continued and enhanced role in strengthening European security and defense.
And 2025 has been a turning point, with 5% of our activities inside the EU dedicated to security and defense. In many areas, the group has been asked to do more in recent years, and we have delivered thanks to the member states allowing us to increase our financing volume from 90,000,000,000 in 2024, the year covered by your report, to a record 100,000,000,000 in 2025. And your support allowed us to modify our gearing ratio, which was instrumental in achieving such a result, and allows us to increase our risk appetite. Our investments help to close the investment gap, strengthen European competitiveness, support innovation, and make the European economy more resilient. And in this context, a slight increase in overdue payments is not unexpected.
It is important to underline that this level reflects, first of all, technical accounting effects, not a deterioration in portfolio quality, and remains very low by banking standards. And looking ahead, strengthening Europe's strategic autonomy is a key priority, and advancing the savings and investment union is an essential element. And that's why the EIB Group, by leveraging its position as the largest venture capital financier in Europe, aims to mobilize a maximum of close to 300000000000 over the next three years by building on existing instruments and introducing new ones where they are needed. For example, the European tech champions initiative will be expanded, and aims to also crowd in private institutional investors. It has been a great success, anchored in the creation of 11 unicorns so far, European unicorns staying in Europe.
Please allow me to now react to some of the areas identified more specifically in your report. On housing, delivery is local, but the European added value lies in scale, in innovation, in lower financing costs, and in capital mobilization. This is precisely where the EIG group makes a difference. Our financing supports national municipal programs addressing market failures without replacing national policies. On time to market, we have made important progress, and the area of security and defense is a blueprint showing our agility to contribute to meeting the challenges of Europe fast.
However, we will continue to work on improving our speed of delivery while maintaining our quality standards. At the same time, the group is advancing cost efficiency, simplification, and modernization, and further efforts will target specific products and sectors supported by improved IT using AI where appropriate. The investment simplification omnibus your house approved last year also showcases how much additional financing firepower we can achieve by drastically simplifying. Finally, I'd like to say some words on the bank's accountability framework. I'm aware that accountability, transparency, and related policies are important to you, and rightly so, and it is to our shareholders and to us too.
We are a legally separate and self-financed EU body, while also executing programs anchored in the EU budget. We have in place a robust accountability, audit, control framework set up by our governors, which exceeds similar standards or structures of other multilateral development banks. For instance, through the audit committee consisting of independent external experts responsible to audit the bank accounts and verify that the bank's activities conform to the best banking practices, including the SSM framework. They report directly to our governors. In addition, there's internal audit, evaluation, investigation, cooperation with the ombudsman, or the European Court of Auditors.
So the accountability framework is very strong. And 10 meetings a year with our board of directors representing the finance ministers, our shareholders, allow for continuous scrutiny. We are a very healthy financial institution. And I'm pleased to note that the report appreciates the group's cooperation with Olaf, the EPO, and Europol. In conclusion, the union faces many challenges.
We are strong enough to overcome them. Our unity will prevail, and our size will support us along this path. And the IB Group is very happy to play its part. Honorable Bevos, thank you very much for your attention.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much for this. And the next speaker for the commission is Commissioner Dombrovskis. Please, the floor is yours.
Madam Chair,
Valdis Dombrovskis
Vice President Degroth, honorable members. I would like to thank the European Parliament for the report and the opportunity to present the Commission's views. For the commission, 2024 was another year of positive cooperation with our closest partner in delivering on our priorities, the European Investment Bank Group. The EIB Group continues to play a pivotal role in mobilizing private and public capital to reinforce the EU's competitiveness, our open strategic autonomy, and economic security. It remains essential for derisking capital-intensive long-term and innovative projects across Europe and beyond.
At the same time, we encourage the AIB Group to foster higher additionality of its interventions. This means three things: taking more calculated risks, closing critical market gaps, and helping to reduce our strategic dependencies. The EU has long faced a tech scale-up funding challenge. Our competitiveness and security critically depend on our ability to innovate, startups and of our innovative startups and scale ups to access capital. They will require strong support in these efforts, especially those operating in areas such as AI, quantum, and other deep tech, but also critical raw materials and the defense sector.
The EIB Group, European Tech Champions initiative, can play an important role. It is dedicated to supporting Europe's venture capital and private equity ecosystem to address the financing gap experienced by European technology scale-ups. Now launching its second edition, we expect a wide outreach, bringing more member states, as well as institutional and private investors on board, complementing the commission's Scale Up Europe fund. The EIB is also a major partner for the European Commission in implementing priorities outside the EU. On Ukraine, we appreciate the EAB group's continued commitment to enhancing Ukraine's resilience and supporting its recovery, particularly in the energy sector.
The EAB's engagement will also be critical in the postwar period for Ukraine's reconstruction. Europe must act now to urgently enhance its defense capabilities. As the European Commission, therefore, very much welcomes the bank's expanded scope and financing in the area of security and defense. It is important that the EIB Group aligns its activities in this area closely with the objectives of the SAI instrument. The EIB Group's investments in energy security and the green transition remain at the core of its mission.
Given the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the resulting surge in energy prices, that work is more important than ever. To conclude, honorable members, I believe that the European Commission and the EIB Group must continue our successful cooperation for Europe's benefit. By closely coordinating our efforts and focusing investment on strategic areas of maximum impact, we can ensure Europe's continued growth, technological leadership, and resilience in the face of current geopolitical challenges. So I welcome the parliament's report that brings important insights and recommendations for the work of the EIB Group. As EIB Group Bank and Fund has been successful in ensuring a balance between being a bank with a public mission and maintaining agility to ensure its attractiveness as a partner for project promoters, and to advance our important investment policies often with private partners.
I'm confident we can rely on our productive relationship also in the future. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And now we will start with the first round of speakers on behalf of the political groups, beginning with mister Houtink for two minutes on behalf of EPP, please.
Dirk Gotink
Thank you, madam chair. And, let me start by saying that on King's Day, I believe it is, quite interesting that the Dutch vice president of the EIP is sent to Strasbourg to do this debate, but, your presence is very much appreciated. I see you're sitting on the side of the council. Maybe it's logical because council is actually putting most of the money into your budget. The European budget is actually quite small when it comes to the EIB.
And I think we can do better, and I hope in the next MFF, we can do better because the EIB is one of the topics where I feel that in parliament, but also broadly speaking in Europe, it is a sign of a hopeful institution that brings together public money, crowds in private investors, and really looks at projects and the future projects to be to yield an actual profit in the future and to focus on the things that Europe thinks are important. They've already been mentioned by the commissioner. I think here, the only thing we have to be careful is we don't need to do too much because I have a feeling that the EIB, every time Europe has a problem, first thing we do is we look at the EIB. EIB can solve this problem for us. No.
We have now a clear mandate, clear topics. We've already expanded them, for example, with housing, which I think is important, but we shouldn't add a topic every year. We should now focus on the long term and invest on those issues that are relevant. Madam chair, I think it is important also to realize that the success of the EIB also depends on the triple A rating. The triple A rating is not something that falls out of the sky.
It comes out of the fiscal health of those parties that are involved in sustaining its budget. That means we also need fiscal responsibility in member states in order for the markets to trust that the callable capital that is on the balance sheet of the EIB, that also can be delivered when it goes wrong. Now I'm, I apologize, but just a short thing on the last point. We have talked a lot now about migration in this report. I think we've been very careful with the wording.
The commission continuously talks with partners outside Europe to condition and to leverage our influence, our market, and our contributions to cooperation in certain areas. And I don't think we should make this a splitting issue for the report tomorrow. And I hope that some of the colleagues on the left side of the house can reconsider and reflect on that. Thank you very much.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And the next speaker is Miss Tavares for one minute on behalf of S and D, please.
Carla Tavares
Thank you. Madam president, commissioner, vice president, colleagues, the European Investment Bank is a key pillar of the EU's investment strategy. It provides a lever to fund projects that we otherwise would not be able to. It's one of the strongest tools we have to turn ambition into specific action. In 2024, there is almost €90,000,000,000 in volume, and this shows the impact and importance of this institution.
In defense and security, there is a doubling of investment in 2024. And this shows that the EIB is adapting itself to the new geopolitical strategy. Now climate action, there's been commitments in this area too in relation to environmental sustainability between 2021 and 2030. As we see things, the report plays down the role of the EIB as a driver of growth. It ignores investment in social and territorial priorities.
It doesn't highlight the role of the EIB when it comes to the implementation of EU projects. We think the EIB should continue to be a public investment bank that provides economic cohesion. It's with this ambition that we look to the future. We need to strengthen, not weaken, the EIB. The EIB is more than just a bank.
It's a strategic tool for the EU, and the outcome for 2024 shows that clearly.
Christel Schaldemose
K. So mister Roger, for one and a half minutes on behalf of PFE, please.
Madame la.
André Rougé
President. Commissioner, dear colleagues. Assessing the annual report for 2024, DIB should also be an exercise where we focus more on the strategic orientation of its financing. Metal strategic technology, defense, batteries, and the energy transition are key for the future of our industry and our independence. However, the EU is dependent up to 80% on imports from China and Indonesia.
DAB doesn't share the interest these countries don't share our interest or our standards. Our overseas territories and Greenland have huge nickel resources. This is a huge strategic opportunity the EU is failing to seize. We need an Indo-Pacific strategy. Repeatedly, I've called on Stephane Sejonet to look at this issue, but he didn't even respond.
In the name of the Patriots for Europe, I call for a strong intervention on the part of the IB to support the European security instrument that we could turn our nickel resources in New Caledonia into.
Giovanni Crosetto
Thank you very much, President. I'd like to congratulate the rapporteur for a very good report, which I greatly support. There are many points I support. For example, projects being assessed on the basis of objective and transparent and current criteria. For example, full life cycle energy analysis and ESG accountability.
These have got to be stringent conditions, and we have to make sure that all those in receipt of loans actually comply with them. The EIB has made major contributions to strengthen industry, including the defense industry in the EU, not least through changing the admissibility criteria. Investment in security and defense has become possible and has, in fact, been rolled out over and above the dual-use investments. This is a change in narrative. Indeed, it's a sea change in terms of the EIB investment, and it indicates, I think, that we have recognized that there's more than ideology at stake.
We need to work to serve the interests of Europe above all. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Is Mister Kelleher for one minute on behalf of the Renew Group, please.
Billy Kelleher
At a time when the EU budget is being squeezed, national budgets are stretched, the role of the EIB in its contribution is particularly important to maintain momentum, to underpin our long term goals. When current spending is focused on short-term crisis, the EIB can continue to invest in capital-intensive projects and leverage private capital. A lot of this annual report focuses on security and defense. And whilst that is understandable that the EIB has expanded its financing in security and defense, given the circumstances and threats we face, we cannot lose sight of the other long-term strategic priorities. These are essential to make Europe a more competitive, more resilient place, and to improve the lives of our citizens.
Just this month alone, the EIB agreed to back a 260,000,000 solar portfolio across Ireland, which will see the construction of four new solar projects, a crucial development towards our energy security, and a pertinent investment given the high energy costs households are facing. The EIB and the commission also announced a new financing package of more than 600,000,000 to support urgent reconstruction projects in Ukraine and lent 20,000,000 to a Swedish biotechnology company to enable its expansion of SimTel SimCell technologies targeting diseases such as type one diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and heart failure. While our economies are increasing under pressure, this is a type of support we must continue to champion.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And the next speaker is mister Cinkevicius for one and a half minutes on behalf of The Greens, please.
Thank you.
Virginijus Sinkevičius
Gerbina Colagos, commissaire.
Colleagues, commissioner. First of all, the report of 2024 of the European Investment Bank Group shows incredible numbers. More than €68,000,000,000 were invested. About 450,000,000 were invested in Lithuania, which is 0.6% of Lithuania's GDP. And that funds reached more than 1,500 Lithuanian companies.
That is impressive, but we should also think about what is the direct impact of investments in Europe and in Lithuania. How many companies, due to bureaucratic obstacles, failed to receive investment? And this is very important. And the European Parliament's report says that small and medium companies via intermediaries don't receive enough access. Another point is the mandate.
We're very happy about the EIB's investment in critical infrastructure, in defense and security. In general, when we think about the mandate, it has to focus on strategic independence of Europe, energy, infrastructure, defense, security. At the moment, these are the most relevant topics where EAB, together with the funding that it has with the capital, has to be the catalyst to attract additional funding from the private sector. Thank you very much.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And the next speaker is Mr. Koenig. One minute on behalf of the Lyft Group, please.
Rudi Kennes
Thank you.
You, president. The European Investment Bank manages almost €250,000,000,000, and the taxpayers have no say over what happens to these funds. The IB was supposed to eradicate poverty and become a climate bank to invest in renewable energy infrastructure, public transport, affordable and sustainable housing, and health care. It doesn't. There's never money for public services.
What the EIB does is use our money to subsidize private companies so that they don't have to invest their own profits. In 2024, the EIB lent over €89,000,000,000, 10,000,000,000 of which was to fossil fuel companies. In 2025, they invested €4,000,000,000 in tech and military companies, proudly claiming there's money in war. They funded companies supplying tank engines for Israel's genocidal war machine. Apart from the moral horror of this atrocity, what do the taxpayers get from these investments?
The bank's operations are not transparent, and there's hardly any public oversight of how funds are used. The EIB must change. It must fund measures to address the climate emergency and promote social justice. It must focus on public services and finance only companies with strict social and environmental commitments and compliance records. It must promote public ownership, and it must support a just transition that delivers quality jobs and high standards of living for all.
The EIB is ours. Let's get it back. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Oh, that was the first round of speakers on behalf of the political groups. I will now be a little bit more strict on speaking time, so please try to speak, to stick to your speaking time. I will also open the blue card option. And while Mister Pascua Delaporte speaks, that will be the last chance to ask for catch the eye. Please, the floor is yours for one and a half minutes, please.
Nicolás Pascual de la Parte
Thank you, madam chair. Dear vice president of the EIB, dear commissioner, as EPP coordinator for security and defense in the European Parliament. I'm very happy to see how the EIB has been able to break up many long standing, many unjustified taboos. And now it's ready to invest, and that will lead not only in dual use technologies, but also in the pure military parts of the European Union. And I am also happy to see how you have dramatically increased the amount of money that you have allocated to security and defense.
For this year, 2026, you have earmarked as much as 4,500 million euros, which amounts to 5% of the total financing of the IV. I can only encourage you to follow this line. You are also doing pretty well in order to help the private banking to follow you in financing security and defense-related issues. So far, they have been suffering from a kind of reputational risk as well as a kind of downgrading from the international rating agencies if they invested in security and defense, but now you are showing the way how to proceed ahead financing security and defense. And finally, I think that one important feature for the EIB is the capability you have to incorporate as well the small and medium-sized enterprises.
85% of all our European TC of enterprises in security and defense are SMEs. That's why they need your support. They need your right information and the backing in the near future. Thank you very much, and thank you very much for the rapport 2024.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much, also for sticking to the speaking time. The next speaker is Miss Heléne Fritzon for one minute.
Thank.
Heléne Fritzon
You, president. Indeed, the parties of the far right are trying to go against our climate ambitions. They're undermining everything Europe and Sweden have done for our competitiveness. Our businesses are close to the brink, and the situation continues. Now we've got this report on the table.
Mister Ericsson, you've done everything in your power to criticize anything we can do when it comes to green investment. This is part of a culture war, another right way forward, and it's not in the interest of businesses. Our green aims are important when it comes to our future.
Please. The EIB is well managed overall, but the problem is that its mandate is out of control. It's supposed to finance projects which the member states can't fund alone. But now it's actually used as a tool, self start tool, investing all over the place in all kinds of public and private initiatives without any kind of proper transparency, scrutiny, or accountability. We ought to be financing industry, supporting SMEs, modernizing energy and transport networks.
Christel Schaldemose
We should be adding security to our citizens' lives. That's what we should be investing in. Thank you.
That is Mr. Axenia for one minute, please.
Mihai LUPU
Thank you. Bank of European at the The
European Investment Bank is a strong instrument that we have at our disposal in order to stimulate the economy, but we are not using it correctly. And this is what the report shows. The EIB is a group used at this time in order to promote the green deal ideology, which proved to be bad for Europe, and also to restart the defense industry of some member states. We are talking about a Belgian company that used the EIB money to set up solar panels on its roofs. This is what happened in Romania at the time when a lot of our roads are in a very bad state, and very many people do not have money to heat their homes.
I just want to say one fact. We do not measure the social benefits of EIB investments, and allocated funds outside of the EU should take into account the fact that we have important lack of funds in the EU. This is what we should think about when we finance capital.
Wait for one minute, please.
Lukas Sieper
The European Investment Bank, despite its name and its role, often operates far from European territory and far from our needs. Farmers are suffocating. Businesses are suffering from unfair competition. And the EIB is spending billions outside our borders. Over 30,000,000 has been given to Turkey over recent years.
Nicolas Bay
30,000,000,000 is a present which is attacking Greece and Cyprus and uses migrants as a weapon against Europe. Second example, China. The ERB is about to project to finance a project in Senegal, and this will benefit business in China despite the fact that China funds its own businesses. And this is instead of defending our economic security and our workers. Europe needs investments in energy, infrastructure, and industry.
That's where every euro should be spent. It's time for the EIB to be European.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. Mister Bay, there is a blue card from Mister Siper. Do you want to take it? Please, mister Siper.
Thank.
Lukas Sieper
you. Can you hear me okay? Says the speaker. Thank you for accepting my blue card. Among others, you mentioned investment in Turkey.
My question, when we're investing in neighboring countries and our top trading partners, doesn't that benefit the European economy?
Well,
Lukas Sieper
Geographic location doesn't justify giving billions to Turkey over the years. And then not just the EIB, there's the pre-accession funds that they're still getting. There are funds for migration control that they're not doing. Over the past twenty years, about 50,000,000,000 in European funds, but they often behave as a competitor or an enemy of Europe.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And now we come to catch the eye. And, the first speaker is Mister Steehan. Seat 673, please.
Davor Ivo Stier
Thank you, madam president. As we have already heard, a large part of energy project, special project, especially in renewable energy, have been financed by the European Investment Bank. However, a smaller portion of these funds goes to geothermal energy projects. And I am not criticizing the bank for it because it is a political message from EU institutions, especially the taxonomy project focused more on solar and wind energy projects. However, the situation is changing.
The commission has published its strategy, where it stresses that geothermal energy is becoming more important. We expect the commission to prepare its first action plan for geothermal energy in May or June, which will include a risk mitigation strategy, and we expect the EIB to be greatly involved in that. Thank you.
Two, please.
Maria Grapini
Chairman, commissioner, of course, the EIB, especially in this context, has a very important part to play. I'm part of the budget committee, and we've looked at this thing on quite a few occasions. I believe these investments have to be precisely targeted, with a precise assessment of the risk. We've just heard the example of Sweden, where a company was closed down after receiving much investment. But of course, this is the part you have to play.
I believe we need more transparency. And I believe we need a better distribution of investment funds across the member states. In Romania, we have an investment bank, but we don't have the funds at the level that other member states benefit from, especially when it comes to the SMEs. They are doing worse when it comes to capitalization, to investment, to innovation. And I believe that this is what we need to focus on.
Speaker 63
And I finish with a question. You said you'll have 300,000,000 billion. How much of that will go to SMEs?
One 0, please.
Lukas Sieper
It's been suffering from funds being wasted on green ideological projects, where they should be used for European security. You can't stop invaders with green projects. We're looking at the EIB's activities for 2024. We're talking about an institution that can speed up investment depending on the priorities we have in Europe. In 2024, they had over €76,000,000,000 for new projects, and 60% of those, so almost €45,000,000,000, went to green and ecological products.
Christel Schaldemose
But what about defense? Just 1,000,000,000.
Our speaker in Kachtyard is Mr. Sieper. Seat 253, please.
Lukas Sieper
Dear people of Europe, has this continent suffered from a lack of investment in green technology and green industry? If you want to answer this question truly, mister Tinkinen, I would recommend just going to any gas station in Europe where there are people that pay a large amount of euros just to be able to move their car. And now imagine for a second this wonderful world that we could have, where we have an abundance of electric cars, where we have an abundance of solar energy, of water energy, of wind energy, and where we would not suffer under the winds of geopolitics. So, yes, this continent suffered a lack of investment in green technology, and I salute the European Investment Bank for every step that it took in the direction. And in the name of maybe at least my generation, I urge you to even increase it.
Thank you very much.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And now we will get back to the commission and Commissioner Dombrovskis to comment on the debate, please. The floor is yours.
Valdis Dombrovskis
Chair, mister vice president, honorable members, thank you for this very engaging and substantial discussion. I think it has been clear that we are all determined to act together to push the European agenda of competitiveness and security, and to deliver on our main priorities, including on sustainable prosperity. The EIB Group is a cornerstone of Europe's technological and industrial future. In a more fragmented and competitive world, its role must become even more strategic, more catalytic, and more daring. We will continue to rely on the AIB Group to support the implementation of our agenda and stand ready to adjust our support in view of new and emerging challenges.
The group's engagement in the support of a savings and investments union of the venture capital and scale-up ecosystems, activities under the EU, and activities in security and defense are emblematic of that. Let me underline that also in the future, the EIB Group will remain a very important partner for the Commission with a common goal of achieving greater impact inside and outside the Union. I look forward to continuing our close cooperation. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And now the vice president of the AEB, please, the floor is also yours to comment on the debate, please.
Robert De Groot
Madam chair, honorable members, dear commissioner, thank you very much for the remarks you put forward today. If Mister Hoting had been in the room, I would have apologized to him for not wearing an orange tie on our national day, but he has gone. So thank you for that. Maybe to come to your very valid remarks, and I will group them around certain subjects. First of all, on banking in general.
Banking is about taking risks. If there was no need to take risks, there would be no banks. Banking is about taking risks. And most of the time, and certainly in the case of the EIB, almost all the time, we get our money back with interest. But sometimes, and that's part of banking, it fails.
It's part of the game. And if you look at our numbers, we are an extremely well capitalized bank and doing very well. There was a lot of remarks on our investment, and I fully follow what the commissioner said that we have to be there where there is a market failure or a market gap. We have to be there where there's additionality coming from a public institution. And, of course, we follow the priorities set out by the European Commission.
And it's true. One of the sectors where we invest most is energy, about 30,000,000,000 out of 100,000,000,000 in 20, 25. And we do have to lower energy prices in Europe. We have to keep energy accessible and affordable for everybody. We have to invest in our grids, which are under a huge amount of pressure.
We include, by the way, geoturbul. It's part of it, and especially SMEs because we do invest a lot in SMEs trying to lower their electricity bill by investing in sustainability, but also when it comes to wind power. So green growth remains an extremely important element of what we are doing. Secondly, I've listened very well to the remarks you made on SMEs. And I think all of you are right.
We have to pay particular attention to the access to financing, to credit, to working capital for SMEs across Europe. In 2025, out of the 100,000,000,000, which was our general turnover, 18 went to SMEs. We cannot approach them directly. We are too small as an institution, so we always use intermediaries, which are the European commercial banks. But they are very important and very dear to us. The supply chain dependence, some of you mentioned, I think you're absolutely right, having more autonomous supply chains in Europe is crucial.
That means we have to invest inside the EU, but also globally, and that is exactly why we're also active outside the EU. And active outside the EU means, first of all, Ukraine and to support them in the struggle they are facing. Secondly, candidate member states. And thirdly, further away from Europe where there's a real European interest. We are a public institution, and we do invest in the critical infrastructure for citizens.
So, for example, in the area of security and defense, people sometimes only hear the word defense. It is security and defense, and the security touches on the critical infrastructure and the public services for European citizens, which means access to drinking water, energy, health, and access to hospitals. And if we look at Ukraine, I've said it before, we have seen how this civilian infrastructure is targeted by Mr. Putin. So we have to protect our critical infrastructure for our citizens. I thank you very much for some of the other remarks, and I look very much forward to further engaging with you.
Thank you, President.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much, Vice President. And now I will give the floor back to the rapporteur, Eriksson, to close the debate, please.
Thanks. Thanks. Thank
Dick Erixon
thank you very much. This was a very interesting debate. We've heard, of course, that there is a divide between those who between the perfect aspirations we have to invest in green energy and, all these magical futures. But we've also heard that it's important to manage taxpayers' money properly and prudently. It is important that we generate added value on our investments.
That's what our investment should deliver. This report therefore seeks to achieve that through insisting on greater transparency and accountability, greater oversight, so that we have greater clarity about which investments are being made, how, and where. We need to have a sharp-eyed focus here rather than trying to use too much of a scattergun approach. That is really not going to serve us well. What we need to do is, as I say, have a focused approach so that we can really deliver added value.
It's very important that this parliament does everything it can to help the EIB to move closer towards that. My country is one of the ones which has had certain ups and downs. Some of you have alluded to that. If there is an issue with a project, it's important to learn the lessons that we need to learn from such an experience. That can serve us well.
One can learn from failures, and that's not just an expression of a pious wish. It's a very dispassionate assessment because we need to use our taxpayers' money, which we're responsible for auditing in the most effective way possible. That's the whole point of this report. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And the debate is closed, and the vote will be held tomorrow. So thank you very much. We will move on to the next item on the agenda. That is the report by Miss Insir and Miss Soering Vilgus, the importance of consent-based rape legislation in the European Union.
I just need to make sure that everyone takes their seats before we start. Thank you very much. And we start with the two repertoires starting with Miss Insir for four minutes, please.
Evin Incir
Colleagues, only yes means yes. We understand this principle almost everywhere in our legal system. If someone takes your money without consent, it is theft. If someone grabs your bag without consent, it is a crime. If someone enters your home uninvited and takes what is yours, it is clearly illegal.
In all these cases, the law is simple. Without consent, there is a violation. So why does this clarity disappear when it comes to a person's body? Why is immunity and impunity tolerated when women and girls are the main victims? Why in part of our union is it still not fully recognized in law that sex without consent is rape?
We are in 2026. And yet in too many member states, the law offers stronger and clearer protections for objects, for a wallet, a phone, a piece of property, than it does for a woman's body. That is not just a legal gap. It is a moral failure. Only yes must mean yes.
Everywhere for everyone. During last Monday, I had the honor to serve as a co-rapporteur for the directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence. In that process, we fought hard to include what should be self-evident, that rape must be defined by the absence of consent. We negotiated. We argued.
We built compromises, and we came incredibly close. But at the final moment, this was blocked by a blocking minority in the council, an unholy alliance of men. The former Hungarian prime minister, Victor Orban, former minister of justice Marco Buschman in Germany, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Let me be very clear. There is a legal basis in EU law despite what these three men and others have said.
Article 83, one of the treaty, allows us to act against sexual exploitation. If rape is not exploitation, what is exploitation? And the Istanbul Convention is even clearer. It requires states to define rape based on the absence of consent, and states that consent must be given voluntarily as the result of a person's free will. These are not political preferences.
They are legal and moral obligations. Colleagues, women in the European Union still face major barriers in accessing justice for rape. The vast majority of rapes are never reported, and of those, very few lead to conviction. Too many survivors are met with doubt and prejudice. They are questioned, not believed, and even blamed.
And that fear of not being believed or being shamed is one of the main reasons for so many women not reporting at all. The scale of this is undeniable. One in six women in The EU has experienced sexual violence. One in three has experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15, and yet only 13.9 percent of victims report to the police. Only 20.5 reach out to health care or social services, and only one in 200 rapes results in a conviction in Europe.
At the same time, we see a disturbing reality. Only online spaces where men exchange so-called tips on how to rape, reaching tens of millions of views just in a few days. This is a rape culture, and it must be replaced with a culture of consent, because laws shape norms. Consent-based legislation is not just legally reformed. It is a societal change.
Behind every number is a real person, a life impacted. Colleagues, it's time for only yes means yes all across our union. Thank.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And the next speaker will be the second repertoire, Miss Charing Villegas, for four minutes, please.
Mirosława SOERING VILGUS
Madam president, each and every one of us comes to politics with something that hurts us, something that cannot be left behind closed doors, something that keeps us awake at night. And this subject is one such thing for me. When we talk about the European definition of rape, I do not see an item on the agenda. I see faces of women who remained silent, who were not believed, whom the system told were not rape. How many women do you know personally?
A 100, maybe 200? Think about their faces. It's your colleagues, your sisters, maybe your family members. One in three of them experienced sexual violence. It's not a statistical data item and not an anonymous case from this report.
It might be a woman you know whose name you know. Maybe you were sitting together at a table, laughing, talking, not even knowing what has happened to her. So do not think about the numbers. Think about concrete women, because facts are terrible. One in three women in the EU experienced physical or sexual violence.
And we have heard recently that on the Internet, there are websites that actually teach how to rape women, and they get 60,000,000 views per month. This is terrible. Sexual violence doesn't come from nowhere. It grows where there is no punishment for the perpetrators, where women are dehumanized. And, unfortunately, violence is too often normalized.
Internet teaches how to be violent, and the system does not guarantee safety. And we want to change that, and it's important to understand that a victim may not always have the strength to fight to say no. They can fight, yes, but they can also freeze or faint, and that does not mean consent. So our law and our institutions must clearly understand that there is no one correct behavior if you are a victim. And we also have to stop thinking that rape is something that happens in a dark alley and is perpetrated by a stranger.
That is not the case. In many cases, the perpetrator is a partner, a colleague, an acquaintance. Many women experience sexual violence perpetrated by their partners. And, unfortunately, only 1 in 7 victims report rape to the police. They do not have the strength to do it.
They do not believe they will be treated seriously. One more thing. We speak in our report about the fact that only one in five women contacted a doctor or a social care system. That is why we have to support them on every step of the way, because the way to justice does not end in court. This report says very clearly, any sexual act without consent is rape.
And in Europe, we cannot just build our legal system around the question of whether the victim was resisting sufficiently. And, of course, it cannot be that a definition of rape changes when you cross a border. This means that it's very difficult for our police officers and our judges to cooperate in a cross-border environment, and we also do not provide sufficient protection to our victims. It's not just about common rules. It's also about protection, efficient protection.
And our report is not the end of this process. We just opened the next stage. The parliament the European parliament is red. It tells the European Commission, madam commissioner, we have done our job. Now the ball is in your court.
And let me appeal to you tomorrow. Please vote in favor. We need to change the law.
Christel Schaldemose
And I will now give the floor to the Commission and Commissioner Lapipe. Please, the floor is yours.
Hadja Lahbib
Thank you, madam president, honorable members. Let me begin by thanking the co-reporters and the shadow reporters for their outstanding work on this vital report on an issue that is very close to my heart. Last year's gender-based violence survey confirmed that the prevalence of gender-based violence remains too high. Nearly 1 in 5 women in the EU have experienced sexual violence, including rape and other unwanted sexual acts. And as you rightly said, this is not just a number.
It is a call for action. That the data is very clear. Most rapes are not committed by strangers in dark streets. They are committed by someone the victims know very well. A recent CNN As Equals investigation led bear this reality, exposing online networks where men encourage each other to drug and assault their own partners and share tips on evading detection.
We must do more because every woman and girl in our union deserves the right to be and to feel safe everywhere, in our cities, in our bars, and in our houses. In March, I presented our road map for women's rights, includes a clear objective to prevent and combat sexual violence, including rape based on a lack of consent. So let me be clear. There is no time to waste here. I want my daughter, my baby granddaughter, and every single girl and boy to grow up in a Europe where consent is the cornerstone of all sexual activity.
Honorable members, with this report, you have sent a very clear message. Having a definition of rape based on the lack of consent across the EU is an absolute priority. The commission stands firmly with you. Our recently adopted gender equality strategy underscores this commitment. The commission will support national reforms putting in place definitions of rape based on the concept of consent.
We will also conduct a comprehensive mapping of the current legislation across the EU to identify further legislative action, to ensure that sex without consent is defined as rape across the EU. Rest assured that we will continue to take all possible measures to achieve such recognition in Europe. So I welcome the report's strong emphasis on the landmark directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, and the importance of the implementation. Let me assure you that the commission is fully committed to ensuring its key measures take root across the union. A cornerstone of this progress is article 35 on preventive measures to promote the central role of consent.
This will help us build a union where everyone growing up understands that non-consensual sex is a criminal offense. I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight the importance of the ongoing trialogues for establishing a harmonized definition of rape based on lack of consent in the recast directive on combating child sexual abuse. While this would only address the rape of children above the age of sexual consent but under 18, it will represent a crucial step forward for the EU. I sincerely hope you can reach an agreement with the council on a definition that ensures all nonconsensual sexual acts are criminalized. A child's freezing in fright should never be mistaken for consent.
Rape is and must always be considered a crime in our union of equality. I trust that we can count on your support also in this fight, just as we have before. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much, Commissioner Lebib, for this. And now we will start with the first round speakers on behalf of the political groups, beginning with EPP and Miss Mertens for two minutes, please.
Verena Mertens
Madam President, colleagues, a person can freeze with fear. A person could say no internally, but not say it. A person can feel helpless when alcohol or drugs make it impossible to resist. This is something that our legislation cannot neglect. A lack of resistance does not mean consent, and that's what this report is about.
It doesn't make a difference to Europe's women which side of a border they live on. We're not starting from zero. A lack of consent is already grounds for the crime to be considered as rape. But in many countries, resistance and physical resistance and express no's are made too important. People freeze.
People feel pressured. People feel helpless. So this report is an important political signal. We want to close the loopholes in protection. We want to ensure that people across Europe can have similar standards and can rely on them.
There's one thing that has to be clear from the outset. Sexual acts without consent have to be punishable under criminal law. Lack of resistance is not consent. What's at the center of this report is the legal definition of rape and its European harmonization. It's a question of legal certainty, standards to protect victims, and function and practice.
Support, prevention, and advice are very important for those affected. It's not just the task of criminal law where they are not the core of this report, but we will have to deal with those in the future as well. Today, what we're talking about is that clear line: sexual self-determination has to be better protected. Our objective is more protection, more clarity, and more justice in Europe. Thank you very much.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And the next speaker is Miss Galves for one minute on behalf of S and D, please.
Lina Gálvez
Gracias. Thank you. One in five women has suffered sexual violence, including rape, which is a broad crime. But, unfortunately, people are not reporting it. And in fact, we have seen as Miss Pelico has taught us, society makes us feel guilty and laws do not protect us, and the institutions do not assist the victims enough.
And in fact, we need to make sure that it's a question about consent. We cannot if someone freezes in fear, we have to recognize this and make sure that the person, the perpetrator, is held accountable. So only yes is yes. And in Spain, in 2022, there was a, this was spearheaded with the, gender violence. A directive didn't go through because of a lack of majority in the council.
Commissioner, now we must conclude this work. The European Commission must propose a legislative act that defines rape when it's a non-consent act. Sexual violence will not be tolerated, and we must make sure that laws bring us our autonomy back, that perpetrators are held accountable and that the rights are guaranteed for women in all European countries. Thank you very much.
Christel Schaldemose
Very much. The next speaker is Miss Eilas on behalf of PFE for one and a half minutes, please.
Marieke Ehlers
Thank you, Madam President, Commissioner. Let me be absolutely clear from the outset. Rape is a horrific crime. It must be unequivocally condemned, and victims deserve justice, protection, and the utmost respect. But the proposal that we are discussing here today is not the answer, and harmonization at the EU level is certainly not the answer.
Because, of course, consent must be central, but reducing it to a constant contract-like requirement drags everyday human interaction into legal territory that would unsettle even the most seasoned law professor. It moves away from assessing coercion, intent, and context, and towards a cold, abstract model that is detached from the realities and the beauty of human interaction. Human relationships do not unfold through formalized steps or legal checklists. They are based on mutual understanding, signals, emotions, and trust. If the law disregards this reality, it risks criminalizing ambiguity, rather than targeting real abuse.
We all want better protection for victims, but murky standards do not strengthen justice, they weaken it. Colleagues, we must combat rape decisively, but we must do so with laws that are clear, enforceable, and grounded in real life, not with ideological proposals that disregard member state competences, risk unintended consequences, and ignore the realities of human interaction. Thank you very much.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you. And the next speaker is Miss Kanko for one minute on behalf of ECR, please.
Assita Kanko
Thank you, madam president, madam commissioner. Thank you very much. We all here agree that women need to be protected against rape. Only my feeling, my impression is that we fight rape a lot in our imagination by speaking to each other, like we are doing today. And it's very frustrating because in reality, women are still suffering.
There is little progress since we have negotiated the law, passed term against violence against women. Why is the problem? Because each time that we are going to speak about women, we find a reason to add competencies that are not EU competencies, and these stand in the way of efficiency. Our opportunity to really say something about consent-based legislation is unique, and we should focus on that instead of dividing the parliament. Countries that ratified the Istanbul convention already have legislation.
But what if a woman leaves Belgium, where we actually have such a law, and goes to another country in the EU where the law doesn't exist and she is raped there? It is that woman that we need to protect together. To do that, madam reporter, we need to stick to EU competencies. You will always have my support to fight for consent-based rape legislation, but we should not forget that this is about women, and we need to focus on them. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. And the next speaker is Miss Hendrickson for one minute on behalf of Renew Group.
Anna-Maja Henriksson
Yes. Please. Madam President, commissioner, why did she not fight back? That question is still asked far too often after a rape. It places the shame on the victim, not on the perpetrator.
This must change now. The essential question should be: was there consent? Sexual violence against women is one of our biggest gender-equality issues. It's time to strengthen the protection of victims and survivors, and change how sexual offenses are viewed across the entire union. Renew Europe wants to see consent-based rape legislation in the whole EU, and consent must be revocable at any time.
My home country, Finland, adopted its consent-based legislation in 2023, and France, for example, has changed its position since the issue was last discussed at the EU level. Now the commission needs to act and present a new legislative proposal: sex without consent is rape.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. The next speaker is Miss Kamala for one and a half minutes on behalf of the Greens, please.
Mélissa Camara
Madam and com madam commissioner, colleagues, only yes means yes. It is urgent for our culture, countries to move away from a culture of rape. Those were, online men are giving advice as to how to drug their partners. In France, every year, 94 women are victims of rape. But for too long, we have asked the wrong questions.
Did they fight back? Why did they stay? As if there was a right way to act when there is absolute violence, when the reality is something completely different. We have seen that lives are broken in silence because we know that it doesn't meet up to the image that we have of violence because there's an issue of domination that is anchored. And we looked astray, and we left women alone, victims alone.
Women have sounded the alarm. If this violence is not isolated, it is a patriarchal violence. Despite that, in many European countries, consent is not at the heart of the law. Let us be honest. This debate is not a technical debate.
It is a political one, and there are hardcore consequences of those we need to protect. Yes. This text matters. It gives a clear line. Without yes, there is no consent, and I'd like to thank everyone who has fought and continues to fight to make sure that the law changes everywhere.
Activists that are unrelenting. Let us all take our responsibility to make sure that we take the culture of rape and make it a culture of consent.
Christel Schaldemose
The next speaker is Miss Montero for one and a half minutes on behalf of the LIFT Group, please.
Gracias.
Irene Montero
Thank you very much, President. Ladies and gentlemen, just remember think for a second that if you had your backpacks stolen and if you went to the police and they asked you, why didn't you yell? And then you went to a judge, you said, you're perhaps exaggerating a little bit. Maybe you're lying. In reality, there's no one who got hurt.
Can you imagine debates on TV when someone asked, "Why didn't you just go to work as you should have?" And why don't you just take a coffee with your friends and debate as to why were they smiling so much after the fact that they had had their bags stolen? And what about why didn't you go to look for the person who stole it, and why did you spend the evening with the person who stole it? And you even went to the house of the person who stole your backpack. You were friends with that person.
Think if they asked you why it took you so long to turn up and tell the truth. Well, think of these questions. Think of the bodies of these women when it comes to sexual violence. This is really strong. In fact, society treats women worse than objects.
And can you imagine? If we don't yell, if we don't have injuries, if we go to the house of the person who violated us? What if it was our husband? And what if nothing happened? The only thing that matters is that, without consent, this is sexual violence.
It is an aggression, and it's very good news that this parliament is stating to all women in Europe that only yes means yes.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. The next speaker is Miss Bostorf for one minute on behalf of ESN, please.
Irmhild Boßdorf
Stories had nothing to do with anyone else, let alone the European Union. But nevertheless, with this concert consent-based rape legislation, they're doing exactly that. They are getting involved in the bedrooms of their citizens. Well, we reject that. If you look at the increase in sexual crimes we've had in recent years, it's not from our native bedrooms, and this all started in 2015.
It's not caused by husbands who don't accept no. No. These are men from archaic cultures who we have let into Europe en masse and who do not care a jot about women's rights. In Germany, in 2025, there were 130,000 sexual crimes, around 40% of the perpetrators that did not have a German passport. What do you mean, seriously?
If you really want to protect women from rape, then you have to protect the streets, not the bedrooms. So in our resolution, we will call for real protection, expulsion of the perpetrators, and a lifetime travel ban for them.
Lukas Sieper
Thank you very much, madam President. Well, once again, it's article 10.4 of the rules of procedure. Missus Bostov, you could call these bedroom stories, then these are not rapes. Is that what you're suggesting? Well, I can remind you that calling other cultures things like archaic, deprecatory hate speech is, so please do not engage in that.
It seems that the border of what is sayable is being moved further and further into racist speech. The ESN is pushing it further every single plenary session. Well, I am absolutely sick to death of it.
Christel Schaldemose
Very much. We will take note of that, Mr. Siebel. Thank you very much. So that was the first round of speakers on behalf of the political groups. And now I will open the blue card.
Please, use it. And the next speaker is Miss Meleti for one and a half minutes, please.
Eleonora Meleti
Thank you, madam chairwoman, commissioner, dear colleagues. Imagine a woman not moving, frozen, her body stiff, and someone raping every cell of her being, of her body, of her soul. She wants to yell and scream, but no sound comes out of her mouth. She's not screaming. She's not fighting back.
She's not running away, not because she consents, but because she's paralyzed by fear. What some people still ask is, why didn't she react? Science recognizes it as a freeze response. In other words, an automatic neurobiological reaction of survival occurs when the brain perceives a danger and neither fight nor flight is possible because the body freezes. But inactivity, immobility is not consent.
It's terror. Silence is not acceptance. It's shock. And there are other situations where consent is impossible. When a woman is drunk, drugged, unconscious, under the influence of substances, in a state where she cannot understand or choose, a woman under these circumstances cannot say yes.
This is why the definition of rape must be based on consent, not based on bruises, on screams, on whether the victim fought back or as much as the spectators of her tragedy would have liked. And when we try such cases, we must not ask the victim what she was wearing, why she didn't scream, why she didn't run away. There's one essential question. Was there free, clear, and genuine consent? If not, then we're talking about rape.
Thank you.
Juan Fernando López Aguilar
Thank you, Madam President. Commissaire Laviv.
Commissioner, in the Libbey committee, in the legislative procedure, in the legislation on crimes against women, we were disconcerted by the fact that we weren't able to complete this legislation because of the council, and the Istanbul Convention is now celebrating its 15th anniversary. We need to know and speak clearly that any sexual act without consent is a rape, and, therefore, it is urgent for any sexual abuse that goes against free consent should be subjected to criminal legislation that is harmonized in Europe. Moreover, there is an obsolete law in place in member states that states that nonresistance or because of the freeze response could be tantamount to consent. It is important to also have sexual education and have training with judges and lawyers that have the role of fighting impunity of any type of rape or sexual aggression against women. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Dear colleague, we have a very long speaker's list and more topics on the agenda, so please stick to your speaking time. And the next speaker is Mister Bousade Villalba for one and a half minutes, please.
Jorge Buxadé Villalba
50,000
In Wolfpack have violated children and women in Spain. The government is hiding the data on where these individuals come from, but we know that no less than 50% of these are from abroad, and that means that they are four times more likely to commit these crimes compared to Spaniards. And if you look at this data, it's possible to find the solution. So nonconsent sexual, with violence and with intimidation, this has always been a crime. And when it comes to consent, the individual who was raped, well, there was no consent that was asked for that.
And those young girls who were systematically raped by foreigners, they didn't give their consent. If you look at Sanchez's government, you can see that there were many that were left from prison early, and we are asking for worse jails and life sentences for the worst cases. And, of course, foreigners should be deported immediately. In Spain last year, 7,000, 5,400 rapes were reported. And we cannot commit the same mistake that Pedro Sanchez did in Spain. More money, more observatories, more programs.
Well, for us, what we're looking at here are women and children. They are women and our children, and we must protect them. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Mister Boushade, there is a I have two blue cards. Do you want to accept that? Okay. We start with Mr. Oliveira. Seat 125, please.
João Oliveira
Thank you very much, President. Mister Boucher de Vilalba, the question for you is, if you're so worried about rape committed by foreigners, does it mean that there's no problem with the rapes committed by locals? Secondly, well, we are talking about penalties and sentences, but you're not changing the laws because in many cases, there is no idea of a consent-based rape definition. So in that case, do you think that law is sufficient even when there is a crime committed and a perpetrator? Are you only interested in propaganda, or are you prepared to take a step forward in fighting sexual abuse?
Reply.
Jorge Buxadé Villalba
I'm not sure what you heard, sir, but I didn't say any of this. Any type of rape against women and children is something that I've, of course, been outraged by. But I'm also concerned that governments are not telling us where the perpetrators are from. They don't give us the information of the nationality of origin of the perpetrators. But every victim, I am concerned about, of course.
And we need the highest sentences and life sentences for the worst cases. That is a penitentiary policy that is fundamental, which is, when it comes to the sentences and prevention. If you know that you can get out after six months or a year, the deterrence isn't the same. So don't commit the crime.
Christel Schaldemose
Listen. I had one more blue card, mister Sieper. Thirty seconds. Please remember.
Lukas Sieper
Dear colleague, thank you for accepting the blue card. If all victims are equally important for you, why do you use this debate, the this debate again, to bring up the special cases of foreigners as the perpetrators? If you really care about women, why do you use this debate to frame the problem in a certain way? For this legislation, for this report, it doesn't matter who the perpetrator is. So why don't you just support it?
Thank you.
Jorge Buxadé Villalba
Well, I'd.
Like to just reiterate, speak to any police officer, any investigator, any judge, if we don't analyze the situation or the criminal profile of the sexual aggressor, we will not be able to solve it. If we just condemn every man because he's a man, and condemn them just for being men, we're never going to be able to find the solution. Therefore, nationality, origin, beliefs, what they think about women, these beliefs that are imported, that they believe that women are lesser people than men, well, these are things that need to be fought.
Christel Schaldemose
So now I will continue with the speaker's list, and the next speaker is Miss Donazzan for one minute, please.
Elena Donazzan
Thank you very much, President. Sexual violence against women is a crime. It is a serious crime that should be punished, and it should be punished harshly. Taking this in mind, as the Istanbul convention says, we need to look at things on a case by case basis. So the certainty of the crime should be something that stands up in court, to ensure that you actually have a correct conviction.
So putting woman at the one at the center of this check, her design and what she wants, that's why there's this whole issue of a woman saying no. If a woman doesn't give her consent, then it becomes more difficult for the presumed aggressor to defend themselves because it's a clear act, and it's more easy to demonstrate. And, therefore, they will be punished. So this remains the purview of member states, and the Italian proposal is strengthening penalties when rape happens. So it's good that we're having this debate here in the room.
We have the left trying, as they always do, to try and bring into the field of rights, not women's rights, including women's rights of self-defense, but, you know, very generic, misleading gender ideology, not looking at women's physical fragilities as well. Thank you.
Just a minute.
Thank you, President.
Cecilia Strada
I wanted to ask you. As soon as you are talking here about director consent, I'm not quite sure if you fully understand what is behind this initiative. It needs to be based on a consensus. That's what legislation is about because we know that from the experience of hundreds of thousands of women and also from studies carried out by the scientific community that the brain might not respond, no. Don't rape me.
Then you might be paralyzed with fear. And this is the reason why we shouldn't just be looking at, we should be rather, we should be looking at their consent. Because here, that's what we're talking about, consent.
Well,
Elena Donazzan
I think that the woman's desire should be very clear here because basically, you're looking at years and years and years of defenses. I don't really have a lot of trust in debates. I trust women, and I trust women's capabilities. Even if they're in a difficult situation, their capability to respond, even to respond in a debate. But I think what we're looking at here is a serious situation.
Christel Schaldemose
It's not really women's expressed desire that's getting across here.
Don't have time for two at a time. So I will continue with the speaker's list, and the next speaker is Miss Al Salani for one minute, please.
Abir Al-Sahlani
Stop hiding behind legal jargon. Stop hiding behind your pretended care for women. Just stop it. Because this is very simple, straight-to-the-point legislation. We are just asking that only yes means yes.
The lack of it, therefore, means no. The lack of it, therefore, is rape. No matter what the color of the man is, no matter the age, the length, the width, men are raping. Men are violating. Men are the ones who are taking control over women's bodies.
If you don't believe me, ask the 62,000,000 viewers who watched wives and girlfriends being drugged and raped and streamed online. Ask them. This is not the defense of the rule of law. This is not the defense of protection of women, and yet you turn this into migration somehow. It's amazing.
You know what? You have already chosen sides, and we, as women collective, are tired of your racism, of your sexism, of your lack of responsibility. We are tired of you. Just take responsibility for once.
Thank you.
Thank.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much. Miss Salzalani, there is a blue card from Mr. Terhes. Do you want to take it?
Of course. I love debate.
Cristian Terheş
Thank you. Seat 350, please, mister Terhes.
Thank you. I love debates too. So you were claiming that we should move away from so-called legal jargon, but laws are defining two words, objective realities. You just claim right now an outrageous claim that men are violating women. But I'm asking you to please clarify.
What is a woman? Because people in your group are claiming that a man who pretends to be a woman should, in the eyes of your law, be acknowledged as a woman. So I reset my question. What exactly is a woman that a man violates? Thank you.
Miss Azalani.
Abir Al-Sahlani
Thank you. My dad taught me once that when a person lacks arguments, they look for the seeds of the watermelon in the garbage. And this is exactly what the kind of debate is, why don't you let everyone decide what they are? It's not your role as a politician to identify the people. It's not your role.
What do you know your role is? What your responsibility is? Give us the protection. Only yes means yes. Everything else is away.
That's it.
Christel Schaldemose
It's no. No. It's up to me to decide whether I will give you the floor for the second time. And we have a very long speaker's list, so you will not be given time. The next speaker is Miss Scuderi for one minute, please.
Benedetta Scuderi
Yeah. In France, an 11 year
Old girl was raped by an adult man. The court didn't recognize the crime. Five men raped a woman in Spain. And for the courts, there it wasn't a rape because there wasn't explicit resistance from the woman. In Italy, the court of causation annulled a rape conviction because you can't take off skinny jeans without the woman's help.
My colleagues who were saying that you need to say no, well, these people I hope you don't end up in court because when we're talking here about saying no, we are considering we're not considering all instances where you can't say no and putting consent at the when we're if you look at what's happening in Italy, you're actually taking justice away from women. You are taking justice away from the victims. You are saying to all of these thousands of people who have been raped that they do not deserve our protection. Europe's competence is to protect people in all member states in the same way, because only if only yes means yes.
Christel Schaldemose
And the next speaker is Miss Sarah Sanchez for one and a half minutes, please.
Isabel Serra Sánchez
Thank you, President. This parliament is taking a step that we will always remember, that it's extremely important to remember that if a person has a sexual relation that they did not give their yes to, this is not free. This is sexual violence. For centuries, the bodies of women were used as object objects available to men. And in fact, there's a culture that has been built in which women were only considered to have been raped if they resisted.
And this is not, it's something that can just be recognized when we are dead, just to wait to recognize our pain once we are dead. And on the hard right, when you take this and you don't recognize the truth of women, you're telling women that what they are doing is reporting something that is not true. You are perpetuating this. We are fighting for our empowerment. We live in times of uncertainty, and feminism is here to assist all of humanity.
We know that there are reactionary forces that want to subject women even in the private area. You will not be able to stop the power of feminism, because there is a consensus amongst the younger generations. Sexual relations have to be based on consent, equality, and respect. Therefore, those of you on the hard right, you will continue to move forward because only yes means yes. Thank you.
Alexander Sell
14,000 rapes, and Afghans and Syrians are much more strongly represented among the perpetrators than the Germans, and the figures that are not reported are in the hundreds of thousands. Now people are saying only yes means yes, but there are two problems with that. First of all, most rapists in Germany don't understand German. And secondly, even if they were victims, the rapists would not be sentenced. In Neukon, a few weeks ago, someone was raped, but they were defended.
The perpetrators were defended by people from the left-wing. So when rapes are not being punished, it's because they have accomplices here in the European Parliament and in the courts. Germans, whether or not they come from abroad, do not want our streets to look like Aleppo. That's why we're doing so well in the opinion polls, and your ignorance makes us stronger and stronger.
Christel Schaldemose
Are several blue cards, but I can only take one. Do you wanna accept it from Miss Garcia Hamida Van de Val? Seat 32, please.
Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle
Thank you, sir. Mister Sale, if a German girl goes on holiday to Italy and she meets an Italian guy and they decide that they want to have a nice time together and they go to bed and she's, you know, she's feeling alright, but at some point, she wants to do something that she doesn't want to do, but she freezes. Don't you want that German girl in Italy to be able to go to the police station the next morning like she would be able to do in Germany, and not be treated as if she was not credible, not being asked why she went home with that guy, not being asked if she resisted? Wouldn't you want the same protection that that girl has in Germany in Italy?
Mr. Sell.
Alexander Sell
Now Missus Garcia Habida Vander Valle, I don't know if you've got children. I've got two daughters. My oldest daughter has been a victim of sexual violence. I don't wish it on anyone here in this room to have this kind of conversation. That's why I'm in politics, because a few years ago, there wasn't this kind of phenomenon on this scale.
If you go and talk to other parents, it's a broad problem. And I find it terrible that young women have to experience this and that they can never have a partnership of the kind that I've been able to have, where there is no violence in your first relationship. That's the way I understand the question, and I find it unbearable that you have this moral superiority that you're pointing the finger.
Christel Schaldemose
Since you were directed her, I will let her ask again. Yeah. Please. The floor is yours.
Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle
Chair, it's a lie that this didn't happen before, and I am really sorry for your daughter. I have three, but I will tell you this. That story about a girl, she wasn't German. She was Spanish. She went to Italy.
It was me. So this happened, and it happened already almost 20 years ago.
Alexander Sell
I'm very sorry to hear that. I'm sorry that you had to go through that. But if you look at the numbers, the police criminal statistics do not confirm what you're saying. Eight years ago, we had half as many rapes. What happened in 8 years?
Well, why have the numbers gone through the roof? It's because we have uncontrolled migration from people of other cultures.
Christel Schaldemose
Well, we will continue with the speakers list, and the next speaker is mister Katheiser for one minute, please.
Fernand Kartheiser
Thank you very much, President. Feminism is an ideology which betrays women. Most of them want to be happy with their family, their husband, and their children. More and more often, feminism stops them from doing this because it makes relationships between the two sexes more difficult. Initiatives such as the one we are discussing here today really expose men to incalculable legal risks when they are courting a woman or when they engage in sexual relations with a woman.
Radical feminism is replacing eroticism with constraints, if possible, in writing, and it transforms any sexual act into a potential crime. Men are not protected by being taken to task and accused of rape, even decades later. In reality, feminist ideology tries to make heterosexual love more fragile. This parliament and the commission essentially are overreaching their competence because criminal law is a national competence. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Of Carthizer, would you like to take a blue card from Anna Stroll Strollenberg 645? Please, colleague Strollenberg. Sorry. Your floor is yours.
Anna Strolenberg
Thank you, chair. Well, this is a new level. When we're talking about rape, putting the blame on the women themselves. To make it the blame of rape happening of radical feminism. That is crazy.
But I hear your issue, you have a problem with the definition. Well, let's talk about the definition. Right now, we have talked about it. We have seen an investigation of CNN talking about this rape academy. What happened after, it was husbands raping their women, their partners.
What happens after, the police could not prosecute these men because they didn't know whether these women were asleep or not. Same happened with Giselle Pellico. Men got away with it because they didn't know she could not give her consent.
Thank you.
Yeah. Well,
Fernand Kartheiser
What I would like to do is I would like to respond by saying that in my speech, I did not talk about the definition of rape, but the consequences of the legislation that you're proposing on sexual relations. I think this is very significant. I would also like to say that the changes that you are proposing here are a serious threat to the legal order in our countries. In the criminal code, there's always been certain measures that would mean that there can be no interpretation of the definition of the crime. We're seeing more and more that the European Parliament is proposing legislation, which is extremely vague, that you can no longer have any legal certainty, and it's very serious.
Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
You ask for a floor, but you already had the blue card. And I will follow Crystal Schaudemois' approach: one blue card per speaker and not for those who already had a blue card on this point in the agenda. Thank you for understanding. So colleague Javier Parjalejos, you have the floor.
Thank.
Javier Zarzalejos
Thank you very much, president. Now no consent means rape based on this principle. We should make sure that we are carrying things out properly, legally. For example, in Spain, there was a tragic example of bad regulation of rape and sexual violence that needed to be corrected, but it meant that more than 1,000 rapists and sexual assailants were released early. We need to learn to focus on the main objective and not get lost in the details.
We need to have a solid basis legally, incentivizing and facilitating reporting, and to make sure that it doesn't fall in the statute of limitations. Moreover, we must assist the victims and give them the support following a traumatic event. Assist prosecutors to make sure that they're independent and well informed so that they can investigate and prosecute. Without a harmonized definition, it would be easy to not be able to implement this.
Thank.
Irene Montero
Thank you very much, President Mister Zasalero. When it comes to violence against women, have you heard that 100% of women that report in Spain do not come back and report again. They don't believe in Spanish justice, because justice doesn't believe in them. There was a judge in gender violence stating that there are many benefits to women so that they report, for example, free legal assistance. Do you know that only one in nine women actually report, and only one third of them actually get to a point where there's a sentence that's handed down?
So when it comes to consent and when it says that there's no consent, it means that it's a rape and that there are some judges that want to legislate against women. Now the problem was not the law. It was a bad law, and it came from your political party, by the way. Now I was just a co-reporter on the victim's directive. What I maintain on all of these subjects is clearly included in the victim's directive that the parliament will adopt in the near future, and I'm extremely proud of that work as the co-reporter.
Maria Noichl
We're here to fight for a single, fair legal principle when it comes to sexual relations. The only fair principle, and that's real consent. Yes, means yes. So I want to talk to the partners of men. That's to say that if you signed a marriage contract, it doesn't mean that you are absolutely under a long term sentence.
No. We are fighting for a principle by which wives who have entered into vows to marriage contracts can still say no. And if they do not give consent, then it is rape. Why have I talked about the husbands and the long-term partners? They are the most frequent perpetrators.
Yes. There are people that jump on women in the street, but they are not the main group of people. It's actually men who are the closest to women who go beyond the borders and rape them.
Christel Schaldemose
Colleague's next speaker, Mathilde Androuët, for one and a half minute.
Mathilde Androuët
The European Parliament is going to impose a harmonized definition of consent in rape cases as if the member states were waiting for Brussels, to understand how serious these crimes are as if their jurisdiction didn't include a rapist. Well, it's a new one. All member states have their criminal codes. They have their procedures. They have their judges.
They are completely independent. They are completely sovereign. So what can we see behind this attempt to bring about harmonization, introducing in the European Union, an area which the US has no competence on justice? It is essentially recycling all of the left ideologist tropes, gender inequality. And, essentially, they're saying that, you know, all men are sexually aggressive, and they should all be condemned.
You know, you're saying all men. That's the real objective of this text, trying to create two sets of laws, those that are women who are victims by nature, and men who are perpetrators by nature. If consentment in rape was to protect women, then you would have seen that all countries had already applied this, but the reverse is true. There's fewer convictions, and we're protecting our women unless we are leaving our women and daughters alone. And that's not the way forward.
Thank.
Manon Aubry
Thank you very much, president. Well, I'm quite surprised because often, you would like to talk about zero impunity against all criminals. But strangely here, as soon as you start talking about sexual aggressors and rapists, then you're talking about zero tolerance. Sometime, you even go and say as far as say, you know, you're copying and pasting and saying that men are all the same and that all men are rapists. But, you know, when you're talking about the zero tolerance here, a woman's body, does it have less value?
Well,
Mathilde Androuët
This is a very prerogative question. The example that missus Scuderi cited is 11-year-old child. The rapists were not sentenced on the basis that it was consensual, and that's been validated by the judge. So the issue of consent, well, it's not a consent. It's a demonstration of proof.
You can't prove consent or the absence thereof without furthering the victim. So the child didn't get justice. I want justice for her children because, you know, essentially, consent, that's what a pedophile says as well.
Christel Schaldemose
Oh, we have a one blue card after. That's why for others, please keep ahead for another speakers. So our next speaker, Malgojata Gosyevska.
Thank.
Małgorzata Gosiewska
Thank you very much. Voting against this report is not voting against the victims of sexual violence. It's not voting against consent in interpersonal relations. It is voting against, trying to usurp power. The EU would like to impose a definition on all member states just irrespective of their legal tradition.
This is not a place for centralization or experiments. The proposal that is being made today, it has huge risks. It would flip the burden of truth, of proof, and it could actually prevent access to justice for the victims. Fighting sexual violence is something that can be done by supporting victims and making sure that we are keeping our citizens safe. That means that we have to be able to prosecute, in effect, effectively have good security policy and mutual respect.
The EU should be a cooperation and not a centralization.
Merci, mister.
Valérie Devaux
Thank you very much, President, Commissioner, dear colleagues. The absence of consent should be at the heart of the definition of rape across the European Union. Clearly defining rape as any sexual act without consent. That is protecting all women, including the women like she said, CNN recently revealed a terrifying reality. There's a real industry of online rape.
Millions of videos of women who were unconscious or drugged. They are freely circulating online. The people are exchanging the best advice to drug and to film rape. It's become fun. The commission and member states need to take all of the necessary measures to bring down these, to close these sites, and need to sanction not only the perpetrators, but also the consumers because watching this makes you an accomplice.
Thank you.
Alice Kuhnke
Anything that isn't a yes is a no. That should be clear to everyone. But again, rapists go free. That's unacceptable. It's also unacceptable that the Sweden Democrats are not standing up for saying that the Swedish legislation is right on this.
Instead, they wrote vote against the idea that women across the EU should have the same rights as the Swedish women. A European consent law is decisive in the struggle for equality and for victims to get redress. Blame should go where it belongs, and that's to the perpetrators.
Thank.
Manon Aubry
Thank you very much, president. Going out for a drink, that is not giving consent. Silence is not giving consent. Smiling is not giving consent. Sleeping next to someone is not giving consent.
Taking off your clothes or being in a partnership that is not giving consent, and giving in is not consenting. How many women have found themselves in this situation? The problem is that the majority of EU member states in those countries' laws on sexual violence do not recognize consent, and perpetrators can have full impunity. Imagine for a second if just 90% of thieves were left free without being prosecuted. That is precisely what is happening with rapists.
We have lost far too much time. This definition for rape EU level should have been adopted, could have been adopted if Macron had given into other states to stop it from happening. This text, via this text, the EP is sending a strong message. The commission can no longer ignore it. Men do not have power over women's bodies.
Soon it will be written in text. And only yes means yes. Only consent-based definitions.
Please.
Diana Iovanovici Şoşoacă
Thank you very much.
much. I am appalled to see that there are some women who do not understand what a woman goes through during a rape. I am a lawyer. I have defended plenty of women and girls who have been raped because, yes, the problem comes from education, and Romania is one of the worst countries in the EU for this. And in Romania, politicians have a massive amount of power.
I've represented, you know, 9, 10, 11 year old girls. And we've never been able to get real in investigations because, you know, there's exeopolitical powers at play of not allowed that to happen. The decisions have been taken, legal decisions. I'm basically saying that, you know, a nine year old girl who was raped, she had the discernment to know what was going on. When a woman says no, it means no.
When I say yes, it's yes. But in Romania, we need to take into consideration the fact that a woman essentially is condemned by the population, by the media, by the legal system.
Speaker 146
Commissioner colleagues, 92. That was the number of times it is estimated that Giselle Pelico was raped over the course of a decade. 1,000, that's the number of users in a private Telegram group dedicated to sharing advice on how to drug and rape their partners. Thirty-one percent, that is the number of women in the EU right now who have experienced physical or sexual violence, and that was from 2025. 41 percent is the number of Irish women who experienced physical or sexual violence in 2025.
Colleagues, each of these figures we know, a majority of us do know, represent not just data, but lives altered by sexual violence, and too often by systems that fail to respond adequately. Across our European Union, we still see legal frameworks in which, if there is no physical force, threat, or coercion, the act may not be recognized as rape. We all know only "yes" means yes. Anything else is not consent. Defining rape in EU law on the basis of consent is long overdue.
We now have a chance to correct the gap that was not delivered on the directive of violence against women. Thank you because of member states. We now have an act to finish it. Thank you.
Emma Rafowicz
President, colleagues, me too. Finally, people are putting the shame where it belongs. We've passed resolutions about violence against women. And although there has been some progress even from some heads of state like Emmanuel Macron, there are still many countries that have not moved forward. Yes.
There has been some progress, but we're not there yet. Women have not been listened to, and their no is not being listened to. Yes is yes, and no is no. And if you don't say anything, it means you do not consent. The names of all these women, their sisters, mothers, their grandmothers, those who don't believe in justice anymore because they know the figures or they've got an impression of them.
87% of reports are just completely ignored and archived. I mean, it's not like the far right is saying that it's moralizing desire. No. This is not something that's discussable. It's a rape.
Violence.
Speaker 134
is a crime, and the victims deserve all the protection. And the perpetrators need to be dealt with harshly. I don't really think we need to discuss this anymore. But now we're taking it further, and this is what we're talking about today. There has been a societal shift, and I think this is why it's worth talking about it here.
Speaker 138
And, you know, yes, figures have changed. Figures have gone up massively, and that's because men have come over into our countries, and they have a culture and a worldview which is not the same as ours. This is down to migration and integration policy. And if you walk through our European cities, you will see that. You will see that women don't feel safe anymore.
I've noticed it too over the last 52 years, but I don't want to enter into endless debates about various definitions here in this particular house. I don't want to take up time doing that. I want to get to the point of what we're going to do. We need clear data. We need clear consequences.
If we have real deterrence and real penalties for perpetrators, we need to re-establish public order. We need clear migration policies. If we really want to protect women, we should no longer look away. No. We need to call a spade a spade.
Thank.
you. Please.
Thank.
Speaker 136
Thank you very much. Now consent is not a difficult concept. You can twist this and turn it as much as you like, but there's not an interpretation problem here. This concept is pretty simple. It's yes or no.
And when you're a child, you might not be very happy when your mom says no. Ask my 5 year old daughter. She'll tell you the same. But I'm not a perfect mother, of course, but I want her to ask for something, because she understands it. And the question is, what are you not understanding?
The Istanbul Convention is absolutely clear. It is a definition based on consent. Many states have signed up to that definition, but others don't want it. You're talking about national competence? It's a question of political will.
Speaker 135
Yes or no? We've forgotten that without a clear yes, there is no consent. It was not an argument about complicated legal nuances. If there is no yes, then it's.
Diana Riba i Giner
no. The figures are staggering. One in five women in Europe have been raped, and some 20 percent have been subjected to sexual violence. You know, those of you on the far right, specifically mister Bouchardet, don't come to tell women here in this European Parliament that they should go speak with the police to know who the rapists are. We know precisely who those rapists are.
And you could just ask those who are sitting around you. We are trying to protect ourselves not just from somebody we don't know, but we're also trying to protect us from our violence in our homes, in our workplace, and in
Diana Riba i Giner
Schools. This has a name. It's culture of rape culture. It is not an ideology. It is a precise reality that is unacceptable.
This culture has infrastructure that you are denying exists online. There are chats that have hundreds of thousands that visited to find out how to rape, and that is why rape must be on the criminal acts list in the EU. Without consent, it is rape.
Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska
Thank you very much, President. According to Amnesty International, one in 20 women in the EU has been raped. Those are millions of human tragedies, millions of stories, which have often been ignored, and the assailants have not been punished. So this is a definition which should be mandatory in every single member state. We cannot accept that there are areas where women need to show that they resisted, that they protested, that they didn't provoke.
We can't accept a scenario whereby women, after the drama of being raped, are then put through the mill once again. We can't have a situation where women's rights stop at the border. We can't talk about equality if protection against violence depends on where you live. Today, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about dignity, safety, and fundamental rights. And we, as Europe, as the European Parliament, we need to clearly say that we stand with women, that we support them, and that we protect them.
Thank you.
Ilya Strada, please.
Cecilia Strada
One woman in three in the EU has suffered sexual violence. One in five has been raped. We need to do much more to stop this epidemic. We need to start with sexual education and emotional education in schools. We should stop talking about how women should dress.
We should be teaching young men not to rape women. Only one in eight actually reports the crime to the police, in many cases, a family member or partner or someone they know. But they all deserve to be on the defendant's seat. So we need a rape law that's based on consent, because all too often, women who report rapes do not get justice. If you get your wallet stolen, then no one would say, did you not say no clearly enough.
You say, oh, the robber was maybe right, perhaps. Who knows? But it's more difficult for women who try to who don't say no. And it seems that shame is in the wrong place at the moment, whereas we need to stop blaming the victims.
Please.
Sigrid Friis
Think about how you're dressed. Check what you're drinking when you go out for a drink. I'm sure plenty of women have heard this advice. Watch out. Think about what you're doing.
Online, there are men who are essentially teaching each other how to seduce someone that they want to rape, and they're sharing advice on this. It's such a terrible situation. We're talking here about thousands of women where there's a rape culture, and we need to call this out very, very loud because sexual violence will only increase if we don't talk about it. Of course, shame is part and parcel of this, and shame needs to change sides. It shouldn't be the victim who is ashamed.
Speaker 142
It should be the perpetrators. Sex without consent should be rape everywhere in Europe. Yes means yes, and no means no.
Thank.
Rosa Estaràs Ferragut
Thank you very much, president. Commissioner, every 10 minutes, a woman is killed, and there's no doubt the figures are frightening. We know that women are victims of violence because they are women. The Istanbul Convention is the way forward to prevent violence against women. It has to be clear, unequivocal, irreversible.
And this is key to be able to prevent and protect violence and protect women. Silence can never mean yes. Now this is nothing to do with the yes means yes law. Lina Galves knows that this law meant that thousands of rapists got shorter sentences, and it was Lina Galves and the socialist group. It was my political party that changed this so that it wouldn't happen.
Now we have to be clear. We all stand together. We cannot have a bad law that sends a dangerous message to society stating that rapists can be freed. The way forward is to follow the path of the Istanbul Convention. We should have serious, tangible actions to be taken.
Marco Veslikay, please.
Marko Vešligaj
Thank you very much, Mister President, colleagues. It is time the European Union changed its definition of rape. It must be consent-based. As we face the alarming growth of violence in all areas, the digital domain is reaching monstrous levels. Recently, we were informed that there are so-called rape academies where we have a community that is taking advantage of unconscious victims. There are.
Marko Vešligaj
Already more than 40,000,000 views every month. So this is really horrendous. They are selling, apparently, drugs that can erase memory. EyeCheck is a particularly worrisome label where rapists basically raise the eyelids of victims in order to prove that they are alive but unconscious. This is why it is important for the commission to adopt the relevant laws and measures of protection of victims.
First of all, the approach must be that only yes means yes. This must be European standard, and this rape industry must be.
Stopped. Please. Thank you. Thank
Speaker 145
thank you very much. Commissioner, only yes is yes. Otherwise, it's rape. Full stop. Point.
Buster. It's always the same problem. Self-determination of your own body. Anything else is going too far. The right, it's not just the right to say no.
It's about changing the relationship, the balance of power, because it's an expression of power and control. It's embedded in a system that forces women to justify themselves and to prove that they defended themselves. But that's where the problem lies. Why is the responsibility always on the shoulders of those who have to defend themselves? Well, that's the wrong way around.
Where the consent is the question. It shouldn't be yet, no, that's important. It's the lack of a yes. This would mean a change in the balance of power away from those who exploit, who commit crimes, and it would put the focus on those who need protection in the future. In European countries, only yes is.
Speaker 152
A woman is in a state of shock when a robber comes into the house, then nobody would think that the robber should go unpunished. So why is it different when we're talking about sexual consent? Here, we are talking about the right to self-determination, determining what happens to your body. In Europe, there are shared rules, or there should be shared rules. Because in Europe, you shouldn't necessarily have bruises or have to scream so that people believe you.
The legislation should be on the side of women wherever the women are in Europe. Maybe somebody is on holiday in France or doing Erasmus in Poland or on a city trip to Copenhagen. When I was young, people said that decency was the right thing. So, with decency in mind, only yes means yes.
Christel Schaldemose
I have a pretty long list, but I will give the floor to everybody. And I will start with Paulo Duna Cimento Cabral.
Paulo do Nascimento Cabral
Thank you very much, President, Commissioner. If there is no consent, it is rape, it's a crime. Consent has to be explicit and informed and given freely, and that means total freedom, total awareness. We need a robust legal definition that ensures this concept is harmonized across Europe. And, obviously, it needs to be shared across all EU member states so that citizens are less protected depending on what member state they're in.
What kind of EU would this be if this situation were allowed to persist? Only three countries recognize rape on the basis of lack of consent. In other countries, the victims are traumatized by questions and interrogations, and they're in a much more vulnerable position. We need proper education for the youngsters. Social networks are replacing the kind of sexual relationship education in the schools and homes, and we need to change that around.
Lukas Sieper
Mister President, I disagree with this house. I do not support consent-based rape legislation at EU level. Firstly, it does not belong to the EU level, as criminal law is fundamentally a national issue. Secondly, we have already enacted such legislation in Finland, which I consider to be a mistake. Let us imagine a situation where two people are in complete disagreement in a very intimate situation, but later one of the parties regrets and says that they did not consent.
It will be extremely difficult for the accused to prove what really happened during the evening. I want real rapists behind bars, don't get me wrong, for a much longer period than what they serve in prison at the moment. And as regards foreigners who commit rape, I want to deport them from Europe. I encourage every member state to promote these goals. On the other hand, I cannot recommend legislation that only creates uncertainty.
Thank you.
To our next speaker, Billy Callaghan.
Billy Kelleher
Well, the Istanbul Convention is quite clear on the context of crime prevention and combating violence against women and domestic violence. And I think it beholds us all in this parliament to ensure that we put consent as central to any changes in terms of legislation. If we are to talk about human rights, the basic human rights of dignity and bodily autonomy, well, then the European Union has to have consent at the heart of any proposals to ensure that all citizens in every member state can have their bodily integrity vindicated in the case of being violated. We look at the statistics. They're very clear.
We have a situation in here where some elements try to portray violence against women in various steps and degrees of severity. You know, close family members isn't as bad as a migrant. They are all equally abhorrent, and we must deal with them based on the fact that if a woman says no, she means no. And yes, has to be at the center of any consensual sexual relationships or intimacy. And I find it appalling that we have different scales of severity of rape being portrayed.
this house.
Elena Kountoura
Women have been raped, and the majority of cases are not reported because of shame or fear. In many EU member states, the definition of a rape needs to be proven, and this has lacunae. It leaves unprotected victims to whom chemicals have been administered to reduce their resistance or to make them unconscious. So it leaves victims unprotected because the perpetrator is in a position of power because of fear. Freeze.
They cannot resist. Sex without consent is rape. Silence is not consent. Fear and absence of resistance are not consent. Consent should be crystal clear.
It should be free, clear, and irrevocable. Only yes means yes.
Maria Zacharia
I support the report because it states a fundamental issue of justice. Rape is defined by the absence of consent. Silence is not consent. Fear is not consent. The inability to react is not consent.
Today, in Europe, the victims are not protected equally. In some member states, they have to prove violence or resistance, and this is a secondary abuse. Greece has acknowledged rape without consent since 2019, but it has a dual system where the absence of consent is dealt with in a different way than violence. The European Union ought to secure a unified, clear, humane framework. Without consent, it.
Maria Zacharia
Rape, and it ought to support the victims with substantial access to justice, education of the authorities, and change of mindset of culture, because dignity and physical self-determination cannot depend on where one lives in Europe. Thank you.
Speaker Christian Terges.
Thank you.
Cristian Terheş
Rape should not just cover force but also consent, but many are speaking of gender. According to the Istanbul Convention, a man who considers himself a woman should be recognized as such. This is an aberration, and it will have a negative impact on women. If a man considers himself a woman, then it would be a lesbian relationship. Or if there's a case of a man who considers himself a dog, then this is an animal of violence, and therefore, we should be looking at protecting women.
Speaker 156
The definition of woman shouldn't be flexible. We should not let a man who believes himself to be a woman be able to define himself as such. Thank.
Speaker 158
You, chair. Think about Ellen, 18 years of age from Bulgaria. She was doing very well, and then she was raped. But like 70 percent of other rape victims, she froze during the attack, and she didn't say no. She didn't say stop, and she didn't fight back.
So in Bulgaria, this is because the law requires that the victim provide proof that they physically fought back so that they can take a case. So I don't think that this person will be able to take their rapist to court. Now if she had been in Sweden, things would have been quite different, because the legal definition of rape in Sweden is any sexual act without consent. There is a lack of uniformity around the United States members, EU member states, and this is a scandal. And there's no agreement about the whole question of what the absence of consent means, rape.
Speaker 163
We need to have a standard approach. Able to tackle this around Europe. Thank you.
João Oliveira
Thank you very much, President, Commissioner Labib. As we see it, criminal law should be subject to the sovereignty of national laws, and no member state should actually have to wait to make its own laws better on sexual crimes, including rape. International cooperation in the area of criminal law is indispensable. It would be an advantage to have uniform crimes that are not subject to the differences in member states. Portugal has transformed the Istanbul Convention and supports the EU's accession to this.
They were important steps to combating sexual crimes, including rape, but investigations and work in courts have been important as well. In Portugal, the law does not have a consent-based definition, but nevertheless, lack of consent is taken into account. And the speaker is interrupted.
Lukas Sieper
Dear people of Europe, I've got a message for all men. Think about your entire life and everything you experience. Can you guarantee that you've always picked up on the clues and signs? Can you guarantee that you've always interpreted every situation? Can you guarantee that you will never have done anything whereby your opposite number was not okay with it?
I can't. So, therefore, it's in every man's interest that this law goes through. It's in every man's interest that only "yes" means yes. And what we can do as men is we can support women. Sophie Imerman and other colleagues, other activists, Mr. Sandovala.
Christel Schaldemose
you. Colleagues, we are closing the case, the eye procedure. And now I would like to ask to take the floor for the commission. Commissioner Labib, the floor is yours.
Thank.
Hadja Lahbib
You, President, members of the European Parliament. I should like to begin by thanking you for one of the most lively, passionate debates that I have ever been privy to here in this chamber, but also one of the saddest and most violent. A debate that at times got off the rails, with very difficult utterances to have to listen to. Allow me, in my conclusions, to clarify a few points. Yes.
Things that take place in beds is something that, yes, is of interest to Europe. That is the heart of the debate. And, no, rapists are not all foreigners, and they are not from an archaic culture of some sort. What we are talking about here is a crime, one that uses technology, live streaming, social networks, drugs, new generation, a crime that doesn't always use violence. Because in some member states, violence is consistently mentioned as a requirement of rape.
We need a harmonized, common definition in the European Union such that a rape in one member state can be prosecuted in another. And I'd like to congratulate the member of this house who told us her own personal story. We need justice that is consistently applied wherever it may be, in education, in training, such that consent is the key of any relation. And that if consent is withdrawn, it can be withdrawn at any point during, before, or after a sexual relation. And for the shame to shift sides, for the commission to go further, for the law that is suggested by the Istanbul Convention that leaves consent open.
This is essentially based on a lack of consent. When we adopted our directive to fight violence against women, we did not await that definition, and that is why we need to continue to work and do more. Mindsets have changed in part because of what happened to madam Pelico. The commission in the weeks to come will map out legislation that exists around the EU when it comes to crime, rape, and consent, and this mapping will perhaps open the door to new ways forward, new legislative proposals from the European Union. The commission will also support all member states that are implementing 30, article 35 on the directive of violence against women when it comes to educative material to promote the awareness of what a consent-based sexual relation is based on mutual consent, the desire to be a part of it and not to destroy the other, where in Europe, only yes means yes.
Speaker 162
This is the future that we want for our girls, for our boys, for men, for women that make up Europe. And that is precisely the kind of Europe that I want to live in.
Evin Incir
I sincerely do not sometimes know what to say. How hard can it be to just say yes means yes? How hard can it be? The same people on the far right side constantly fail to understand the seriousness that women and girls are living under. It is not a new phenomenon.
It's a phenomenon that has been existing all through history in all parts of society. What has changed the last years is that legislations in some member states have actually advanced, which has meant that women and girls do dare more and more, to more and more extent, to report this kind of heinous violences. But we are not there yet where all the women and girls who are victims of this kind of heinous violence dare to do that. That's why we need to continue advanced legislation in all our member states. That's why we need an EU-wide constant-based rape legislation now.
And let me tell you, MEP Tesh and Sel and some others, all the perpetrators do not have the same color as me. Most of them or some of them. I don't know what percentage of them, but at least what I know is that they also do have the same color as you, MEP Tesh and MEP Sal. So stop your racist propaganda. There is no evidence for it.
What there is evidence for is that it's not on the streets that women and girls are mainly being attacked. The dangerous place for women and girls is at home. Understand that. Colleagues, some people claim that there are no legal grounds. Let me tell you that there are actually legal grounds.
Article 83.1 in the treaty constitutes in there, the EU crimes are. And in the EU, crimes, sexual exploitation is included. In the council framework decision 2002/05/1984, article 2.2 lists 32 specific areas of offense. Rape is included in it. So less proper words to action.
Only yes.
Mirosława SOERING VILGUS
Thank you very much. I'd like to thank you for this discussion. Now the right wing that showed up here and want to talk about such an important issue. Look. They've gone.
There's only Mr. Teresh left. Now, of course, what he was saying is not true. He's been spreading disinformation. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to talk to you. Even if you're not here, please listen.
You know, you're really sending out a bad signal here because most of you, I don't think, have read the documents. You're talking about things that don't appear in this document. I think you need to read the document and try and understand it. And maybe, given that here at the European Parliament, maybe you might actually succeed in doing that. Every sexual crime should be dealt with effectively regardless of the perpetrator and the perpetrator's origin.
But if we want to talk about how this should work, we need to base ourselves on facts, not political emotions. I'll give you some facts and figures on Poland in terms of foreigners in Poland. Data from my government, in 2024, out of 1,200 rapes, 48 were perpetrated by foreigners. 48. So it's not true that foreigners are coming here to rape European women.
You don't want to read the figures, but the figures show that the lion's share of the violence happens within families, and the perpetrators are the people closest to the women. I would like to conclude by thanking two people who have worked very hard on this document, my two advisors. Without them, this report would not exist. So in conclusion, commissioner, we don't really need another mapping exercise to try and understand what we need here. The commission needs to make a decisive intervention here, and it needs to stand with women.
Christel Schaldemose
He's in the hemicycle, and he was all the debate in the hemicycle. It's just for protocol. Colleagues, we are closing debate on this point in the agenda, and the vote will take place tomorrow.
Colleagues and non-attached members have informed the chairman about appointment to committees and delegations. These decisions are included in the minutes of this meeting, and they will take effect on the date of this notice. The next item on the agenda, Julian Sanchez report, protection of the European Union's financial interest, combating fraud, Annual Report 2024. And I will give the floor to the reporter, Mr. Sanchez. The floor goes to you.
President,
Julien Sanchez
Commissioner, colleagues, after many months of work, I am pleased to present to you the text as the reporter on this. It's an annual report, and it is extremely important. It establishes ways for improvement with tangible proposals to protect the financial interests of our citizens such that their money is effectively, transparently, and responsibly used. It is our duty, and that is why it is a cross party report, constructive, and we had many proposals that shouldn't be instrumentalized for political gain. Now protecting our financial interest, the EU budget that is paid for by our nations and our fellow citizens, and France is a net contributor, I might add, that there are not unlimited resources.
The EPPO recently said in a trial log that before they would establish new own resources, that would be new taxes for our citizens, we should try to find the money that is due to the EU and that has slipped the cracks because of fraud or underreporting. And I work for this. I think it is first and foremost important to recover these resources, correct any abuse or any misappropriation. We should also adjust the mechanisms that we have so that errors cannot consistently be reproduced, increasing controls, billions that do not come back to our coffers because of fraud. With this spirit, I came up with a report in this spirit of responsibility and all of those working in antifraud who are working daily on a daily basis to protect the financial interests of the EU and the member states.
I'd like to thank them for the time that they gave me. I came out I carried a number of meetings, informal ones, at the 2025, at the European Parliament. It was preparatory work that was extremely ambitious for this work, and I'd like to also state that all of the shadows were invited to all of the meetings. They could ask any questions to the authorities. They were consistently involved in Europol, Eurojust, Olaf, the ECA, the budget office of the commissioner.
We also had written questionnaires, all data, and all information were included in this report. And all of this information was made available to all shadows so that they can analyze that information. I want to focus on the heart of the subject, things that are also addressed when it comes to antifraud, architecture, or conditionality, to come up with a number of suggestions that would be targeted where we haven't had enough attention that has been paid. We didn't want the horse to get out of the stables too quickly, so we wanted to make sure that we prevent and detect. Also, we need to strengthen the role of the European Parliament, the legislator.
And in fact, we worked hard on the provisions of the program in the run-up. We saw next generation, for example, it would have been better if we had been consulted. Also, when it comes to the anti-fraud offices, they know precisely what those who don't want to respect the rules will do. Also, we have to make sure that those who are carrying out controls have enough means. When they are working on that, it's a huge investment, and in fact, we are bringing money back via these controls.
Moreover, we want to increase transparency when it comes to final beneficiaries. This data should be accessible. We saw that in the RRF. As a taxpayer, I do not like it when I cannot see the information clearly. If there is an expenditure, we should have clarity on that as well as with revenue, and we also need to have performance-based objectives.
At this point, there are also reasons why this has continued to be debated. This should be underscored. We should serve as an example, looking at our resources, making sure that we are using them as effectively and efficiently as possible. 500000000 is set to be spent on a building in Brussels. I think that means that some people don't have a real feeling of reality, and local authorities should be aware of that.
We should look at the reality, and we should look at it in the face. Thank you to the EPP, ECR, and Renew who came up with proposals throughout the entire procedure, and a number of them were integrated into my report. And I'd like to thank all of the colleagues who worked on the report. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Now I would like to ask to thank the floor for the commission. Commissioner Serafin, the floor is yours.
Piotr Serafin
Thank you, Mister President, honorable members, dear rapporteur. I would like to thank the European parliament for the report. I'm pleased to say that we see and share the same concerns. The threat of organized crime, in particular in customs and VAT, but also corruption and conflict of interests. We also agree on the need to improve the governance of the EU anti-fraud architecture.
In particular, the necessity of deepening cooperation among its main bodies, including national forages. As you know, the commission has launched the review of the anti-fraud architecture. This review is ongoing at full speed. We are working hand in hand with all anti-fraud bodies, Olaf, EPO, Europol, Eurojust, and AMLA. We are exploring ways for more automated exchange of information between Olaf and the EPO.
We are looking at the creation of centers of excellence for data analysis and forensics based on the expertise of Europol and OLAF. And we are considering how to improve the reporting of all anti-fraud bodies using common indicators to ensure consistency. The results of the review will be announced in a commission communication before the end of this year, which will be accompanied by legislative changes where needed. In the coming months, the commission intends to propose the revision of the Europol and Eurojust regulations. In parallel, we are working on the evaluation of the OLAF and EPO regulations.
The results of that evaluation will be reflected in a joint impact assessment for the possible revision of both regulations, but also of the PIF directive. On the other point mentioned in your report, recovery of funds. I can assure you that we take very seriously your recommendations on the recovery gap. In the last few months, we have improved the monitoring of the follow-up of Olaf recommendations and the EPO notifications. The objective of the system we put in place is clear, to decrease this gap.
I want to reassure you that more granular data on recoveries will be included in the 2025 PIF report planned for the adoption before the summer recess. I will stop here, reconfirming the high consideration the commission attributes to the parliament's report. I look forward to a fruitful discussion. Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you very much, commissioner. Now for the European People's Party, we'll speak to Tomasz Dehovsky.
Tomáš Zdechovský
Thank you, chair, dear commissioner, dear director of Olaf, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends. We all agree on one thing. European funds must be protected against thieves and fraudsters. You can tell someone is a patriot by him calling himself a patriot. You know that someone is a true patriot if after a lost election, he doesn't just pack up his things and he doesn't flee the country where he used to steal the taxpayers' money and then go into hiding in the US.
I will not name anyone, but there are countries where the leaders who lost behave this way. I don't want to turn these matters into political issues because these things have nothing to do with whether I wear a red shirt or a green shirt or a yellow shirt. Either you are a thief or you are not. Either you are a fraudster or you are not. And it doesn't matter the slightest if he's from the patriots or the idiots or other political groups in the European Parliament.
I think that, Mister Sanchez did a very good job on this report, and he's a patriot. He's a true patriot to me. No. Really, Daniel, I had the possibility to work with him for 9 months, and he tried really hard to be correct and to discuss based on arguments. He even attended our meetings with the EPPO, with Olaf and others, with the Commission, and with other institutions.
And I think that he took a lot of the input into consideration in his report. So please let me be more personal than I usually am. And let me tell you, dear colleagues, I love you a lot. You are doing a great job. But when it comes to PIF, please ignore your party colors.
Let's vote for a decent compromise that would lay the grounds for a new anti-fraud infrastructure. Thank you very much.
Speaker 175
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats will speak to Jose Sepeda. Thank.
José Cepeda
Thank you very much, president, colleagues, commissioner, rapporteur. Well, I'm really sorry, but the socialist group cannot, under any circumstances, support this report. For us, protecting the financial interest of the EU, well, that's a huge issue. It's very important to us. But what we have seen through this report, unfortunately, with the support of the EPP that is, consistently shifting right and right still, well, this report is not looking at rule of law, and it's even covering up the misuse of some funds.
These bad practices suddenly were stripped from this report, and moreover, there's something extremely important, something that has been called on time and time again, and it's extremely unfair, rejecting the fundamental role that the civil society has to play in controlling and monitoring all of this. For this reason, we will not be able to support this report. We are not going to vote in favor, and I'm sorry to see that the EPP has slipped into the trap of the hard right of this House.
Speaker 176
Speaker for the European conservative reformist group, Berthian Rosen, please.
Bert-Jan Ruissen
Thank you very much, President. Dear colleagues, getting as much money into the economy in a shorter time scale as possible, with as little supervision and control as possible. That is how we dealt with the corona crisis. What was the upshot of it? Enormous debts and an awful lot of fraud.
According to EPPO, there was 5,000,000,000 worth of fraud from the corona recovery money. So things really do go wrong if we take decisions without thinking them through. It also reveals that fighting against fraud isn't just a case of strengthening detection, exchange of information, and risk assessment. We need to work upstream, preventive measures. We need to ensure that we have good regulations, which are not susceptible to fraud.
We need to be tough on transparency and responsibility when it comes to expenditure. If we don't do that, then fighting against fraud will be like mopping the floor while the tap is still on. That is what we can learn about the debacle pertaining to the corona recovery funds.
Christel Schaldemose
New Europe will speak, Garce oh, Raquel Garcia Hermida Fondervale.
Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle
Thank you, Chair, Mister Commissioner. It's a pity that Mister Chikosky has already left because I wanted to tell him that Renew Europe really values the cooperation within the platform when it comes to the rule of law and the protection of the Union financial interests or our taxpayers' money. So I was actually quite shocked when I learned that the EPP had decided to team up with the far right on this one, especially on points where the far right has proven to be quite destructive. So I'm wondering how it's possible that our Hungarian colleagues of Fictica would accept a text with very little recognition of the role of independent media and investigative journalism in the fight against corruption, after having seen how essential these media were to uncover Viktor Orban's crony regime. And how is it possible that our Polish EPP colleagues would accept a text that does not sufficiently insist on the fundamental link between the financial interests of the union and the rule of law having been through the rule of law.
So I believe this must be a mistake. I believe we can do better as a parliament, and I believe you colleagues also believe that. Thank you.
Daniel Freund
Dear colleagues, this is now the seventh report on the protection of the financial interests of the union and combating fraud that I'm working on in this parliament. And I've seen I have to say it's the worst that I've seen so far. The rapporteur Sanchez, despite his numerous meetings that he supposedly had with Apple, with Olaf, with the commission, has missed all the major things that there are to say about combating fraud and corruption in the European Union. There is not a word in your report on the billions stolen by the Hungarian government under Viktor Orban from the EU taxpayers. There is not a word in your report about what is happening in Slovakia, the dismantling of the special prosecutor and anti-corruption, the National Crime Agency.
There is also not a word on the giant scandal of the ID group. And here, I start to discover a certain pattern that all these biggest fraud cases seem to involve members of your party or of your political group or the families that surround that, and then you don't mention them. And, really, let's look at this ID group scandal. You weren't here in the last mandate. Let me remind you that your political group used to be called the ID group.
There is an investigation ongoing by the European public prosecutor for €4,300,000 that has been stolen, misused, and taken away from the European taxpayer. But even your new group now is under investigation. It's the only group that still hasn't delivered a certified audit report for the year 2024. Nothing of this is in this report, and that's why we're going to vote against it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Christel Schaldemose
Thank you. For the left group, we'll speak to Zeppe and Anto Chi.
Giuseppe Antoci
Thank you, President. When we're talking about protecting the financial interests of the union, we're talking about our citizens' money. And if you try to get your hands on it, like criminal organizations trying to get public tenders, every euro that they get their hands on is a euro taken away from citizens, from honest companies, from the future of our regions and territories. It's not enough to act after the fact. We need to prevent.
We need to detect. We need to have anti-mafia certification. We need rigorous controls on ownership chains and subcontracting chains, because that's where the mafia get in. In Italy, we've done that. We've shown that it's possible and that it works.
Now in 21 days, four years will have passed since four policemen were killed for doing their job. We now need to have independent controls, no matter what the amount of money concerned. Protecting European funds means protecting democracy, and you have to decide what side you're on.
Arno Bausemer
Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I think it's quite telling that the SND are rejecting this report on combating fraud, because as MEPs, we owe it to our citizens that we fight against fraud, corruption, and the like. And the European Union, there's an awful lot of bureaucracy here, and often it opens the door to fraud. And it really would not be proper if, you know, people are on friendly terms with criminals and enable this fraud to take up. In Hanover, the socialists are in power there. And there was an association for refugees that was set up, and it received about 1 million euros from the asylum, migration and integration fund.
And this is a group that only actually existed on paper. Go back to Ousalev van der Leyen's hometown, Hanover, and you would say that the fraudulent use of EU money would be fought against, but that has not happened. There's no desire to stop this fraud. And so we are taking this upon ourselves.
Speaker 187
President, commissioner, protecting the financial interests of the European Union is not some kind of technical detail. It's a question of economic reason, but also of political credibility. At times of economic insecurity, increasing prices, and a high cost for companies, we need to be very careful how we deal with taxpayers' money. Every abuse not only hurts the budget, but it also hurts our credibility among companies and in the wider population. We see very clearly from the report that crime is becoming more complex, more transnational, and more professionally organized.
Speaker 186
And even if we continue to improve our controls, we need to ensure that economic efficiency and fraud prevention are thought out together. So, yes, we need better thought-out regulation, but at the same time, better controls. We shouldn't mean that this is a broad distrust of our companies. No. They need to be targeted.
Speaker 190
We need to use databases and analysis to have much more efficient procedures, and we also need to ensure that there are clear consequences in cases of abuse. If you misuse EU money, then you have to face your responsibility. Nikki Lauda once said, we have nothing to give away for free.
Charcolagh.
Speaker 188
Colleagues, to cooperate with the extreme right while you're not controlling it anymore, you are legitimizing it. And here we have a report from the national rally that says it's going to fight fraud, but without even looking at the EPPO case against his political group for misuse of public funds. So the extreme right is taking money out of the coffers, and a part of the right is closing a blind eye. Some believe that they are trying to set things up for the future, but it's a mistake. I know that amongst you, there are some that are questioning this, that know that every time the right has tried to assist the extreme right, that democracy has lost.
Speaker 189
So you, friends, on the right, you are going to decide the result of the vote tomorrow. Whatever the position of the voting list from your political group is, vote on your conscience and be faithful to our republican values.
Dick Erixon
I think it's very sad that we've got this important discussion being reduced to throwing custard pies at the political level. The issues have been raised by the left, completely out of context. This is the fight against fraud. It's not just a question of catching those who make mistakes. It's a question of protecting every single euro that taxpayers entrust to the EU.
So that's why the economic effect has to be measurable. We have to get value for our money. We have to be able to see and evaluate better in the future, because the EU's mountain of debt is growing. This may be more than €900000000000 by 2027. We need to look at how the EU can defend its money.
Christel Schaldemose
Very much. But would you like to take a blue card from Jonas Yostet? Please.
I'm talking about them.
Speaker 204
President. The Sweden Democrats talk about fighting corruption and fraud, but it seems that they're trying to cover up their own issues. In Sweden, there's a development foundation that is constantly being failed when it comes to audits. We're talking about a lot of money, but as a result of political pressure, then you have been able to get even more funding for this foundation. Well, here again, the left wing side is using an important discussion on principle about how to restructure the EU as to some kind of political fight.
Dick Erixon
This has nothing to do with the EU at all, as far as I'm aware. This is a question of development aid, but it's not something that my party is directly involved in. We ought to be discussing the principles of this whole issue. We could take up these individual issues in a different context. There have to be the right rules in place so that we use every euro or krona in the best possible manner.
Next speaker, Mikhail Shcherba.
Michał Szczerba
President, commissioner. 2024, one of the first decisions taken by Donald Tusk was to sign up to the EPPO. That's because he is an honest person. Unlike the kleptocrats, he isn't afraid of having things checked. Whereas Pearce, during the pandemic, they were essentially robbing the money for themselves.
Speaker 193
They didn't even give out enough money to buy the generators for Ukraine as part of the EU scheme. Olaf has confirmed this nepotism, fraud, €91,000,000,000 worth of fraud. Some of those responsible are already in prison. This essentially was a mafia organization which was able to function because of the support provided by the PAS. Peter Maggiap will do the same thing as Tusk did and join EPPO.
Speaker 176
Commissioner, we are very much looking forward to your work. We're counting on it, and you can count on us.
We will start with a.
Davor Ivo Stier
you. This is a technical question, but not only. It is a question of trust that our citizens have in our use of the funds. We have heard the criticism following the negotiations and the adoption of the amendments.
I believe that the report indicates all the sophisticated types of fraud against European Union, organized crime, and fraud with VAT and the hot votes of interest. In 2024, the number of reported cases of fraud grew to 1,364 cases, and this shows that we must act very decisively. We need cooperation between the European and the national institutions, and they have also to show mutual trust.
Maria Graffini.
Maria Grapini
Commissioner, president, protecting financial interests. Well, this is something that we have discussed several times. I've been part of the Bushwick and Holderness for the last two legislatures, and, you know, we are essentially paying these institutions to protect the financial interests of the European Union. And I'm wondering whether these interests are actually being protected. We've got previous commissioners who are under investigation, previous members of the European Parliament who are under investigation.
And there wasn't a vote for a further discharge because the president refused. There wasn't any transparency in the commission or the council. So how do you believe we can build a system to protect the union's financial interests? You know, when we're borrowing money, of course, it's very important that we have mechanisms in place to check all that. But what about the money that we're spending on Ukraine and other countries?
So commissioner, if we do not have effective control on the way money is spent. The efficiency of our investment is, of course, very important.
Cristian Terheş
What's the problem in fraud and corruption? Is it abuse of power or a lack of transparency? In spending of European funds, there is abuse of power and a lack of transparency. 4,600,000,000 doses of vaccine were bought by the European Commission. That's about 10 per inhabitant.
So far, the commission has not published the contract for the purchasing of those vaccines. We do not know what those clauses contain. We do not know who is responsible if there are side effects when you are taking the vaccine. The press has brought out that the commission has spent millions of euros getting NGOs to lobby the European Parliament to support the Green Deal. Those are two examples of fraud, and I call upon Olaf and Apo to take them seriously.
Christel Schaldemose
Oleg Droze. You don't want to speak here, so thank you. Next speaker, Diana Ivanovichi Sosvaka.
Thank.
Diana Iovanovici Şoşoacă
You are speaking about that fraud. But do you know precisely how this takes place? For 35 years, politician-owned businesses have been carrying this out, and they have been defended by parties that are in government, the socialists and the liberals that you continue to defend here. You talk much about the fact that the EPP is working with the extreme right, but you are the extreme left. In Romania, the liberals, the socialists, and the so-called opposition, they are cooperating, and all of this is normal in Romania.
You talk about corruption, but look at Romania. Look at how much corruption there is when it comes to EU funds in Romania. No one is investigating that. When it comes to Vanderleijn and her text messages, the vaccines, and family connections, Romania was supposed to spend 600,000,000 for a contract.
Juan Fernando López Aguilar
Commissioner, I am I was the chair of the Libbey committee, and I was a rapporteur when it came to the report, this report in the past and when we established the EPPO. And what we've seen is that this has been broadened in terms of powers, and with the working with Olaf and the member states continue to fight fraud. They have taken the scale of this. The report, however, is a lost opportunity to look at how we can precisely fight fraud. And when it comes to conditionality, we have that so that we can stop access to fund if people are not respecting the rule of law.
And it also recognizes the fact that CSO has a role to play in monitoring and fighting fraud in the EU, as does investigative journalism. Therefore, we need an EU strategy that is an anti-corruption strategy, one that is not just something that comes down to the individual member states. This is a lost opportunity, commissioner.
Christel Schaldemose
And now I would like to ask again, we are closing the KGI procedure. Commissioner Seraphine, the floor is yours.
Mister.
Piotr Serafin
President, honorable members, thank you for this debate. I will address some of the points that you have raised in this debate, in particular on the lessons learned from the RF. This was one of the topics that was raised. So I would like to underline that several of the recommendations from your report have already been included in the new MFF proposal. For example, the NRTP proposal provides for mandatory reporting of detected irregularities and fraud in the irregularities management system, IMS.
In addition, national anti-fraud strategies have been included in the NRPP proposal as one of the key and obligatory requirements for member states' management control and audit systems. Transparency is also further increased with the new single gateway, a centralized website which will include information on all final beneficiaries, not just the top 100, but also on contractors and subcontractors. The commission will continue to do everything in its power to improve and increase the level of protection already in place. I appreciate today's debate, and I would like to assure you that the report will also inspire us in our work on the review of the anti fraud architecture. On many of the recommendations that we can find in the report, we will find ourselves eye to eye, where we are determined to deliver on improved and efficient antifraud architecture model.
Thank you.
Speaker 198
Thank you, commissioner. I'd like to call the report to Mr. Sanchez. Go ahead, sir.
Julien Sanchez
Thank you, madam president, commissioner. Well, you're right to say it. The adoption of this report is important because it contains recommendations which are factual and objective. They're important, and they call us back to the real subject we're talking about here. And I'd like to thank those speakers from the right-wing groups who have repeated that we need to look at the substance here, the fundamental issue, and that is that we protect the financial interests of the European Union.
That's what the report is about. Nothing else. I think only Missus Grapini from the left-wing group has actually stuck to the essence of the subject. She has a lot of legitimacy in the budgetary control committee, where she's a long-standing member. And, for example, it seems like we're holding a big cinema prize, but no one from missus Gropini's apart from missus Gropini, none of the left wing parties actually turned up at any of the meetings that took part in any of this work.
And I think it's an absolute scandal. This way of doing politics discussed with our citizens. I vote in the plenary session, and when I vote on the budgetary amendments that you enter, I vote on the substance, not on the politics. You look at the author before you decide on which amendments to vote. That's a scandal.
You judge people on the basis of ongoing inquiries. Well, are all the NGOs guilty in that case? I think we really need to stop playing politics like that. That's why you're losing so many elections in your various countries. People want to talk about the substance.
This is not an extreme-right report. This is a report that stresses the interest of Europe's citizens as taxpayers. And if it was otherwise, EPP would not vote in favor of it. What we do in the budgetary control committee is this. It's not just show politics like that you're engaging in, sir.
Speaker 198
Thank you very much. The debate is now occluded the closed. The vote will take place tomorrow. The next item on the agenda is Miss Pereira's report, financial literacy and the rise of influencers in the context of the savings and investments union. Madam Pereira, you have the floor.
Lídia Pereira
Madam president, colleagues, financial literacy is not a luxury for those who have great salaries, and it's not something reserved for specialists. No. It's conditioned for our freedom for all of us. If you don't know what the cost of credit is when you want to get a loan, if you don't understand the risk on your investment, or if you don't manage to distinguish advertising from neutral information, then you're vulnerable. You're exposed to over-indebtedness, to fraud, disinformation.
Speaker 201
In the European Union, only one in every 5 citizens has a high level of financial literacy. That is not a mere detail or a statistic. It is a problem in terms of inclusion, protection, and even a problem for our competitiveness. This report intends to respond to these shortcomings. Our response is simple.
More financial literacy means more freedom for people to decide about their future. We're not trying to tell people what they should do with their money. What we're trying to ensure is that they decide better and with more confidence. We should treat financial literacy as a basic skill that is learned early in life and reinforced on a lifelong basis. This means that we need to put it on school curriculums, train teachers, and ensure it's available in workplaces, and that the support is available at key moments in life, first salary, when you get a mortgage, and prepare retirement with particular attention for the most vulnerable groups.
We need to be very serious. We need to set targets that are evaluated. What we can't measure, we can't improve. Without statistics, you've just got good intentions. But if you have indicators, you can have a proper public policy.
Secondly, if you want to create a savings and investment union, it's not enough to simply look at the supply side. You need to have citizens that can compare costs, understand the relationship between risk and return, understand the impact of inflation, and decide with proper knowledge. Simple, useful tools, and we need a European multilingual campaign, a database of good practice, comparisons, and assessments of risk. We need to simplify the information without reducing investor protections. Thirdly, we need to understand the new digital ecosystem.
For many of us, access to financial information is not something you get at your local bank branch, but you get it on social networks. That creates new opportunities, but also serious risks. There could be hidden advertising. There could be unqualified people and even frauds out there. So we're not trying to censor content creators.
What we're trying to do is to distinguish people who provide information from those who are out there to trick you. We need a European code of conduct, a seal for good practice, training for finfluencers, clear risk statements, and better digital comparisons. So this is a report about money. Yes. It's true.
But, primarily, it's a report about freedom and safety in your day-to-day decisions. We need citizens, people who are better prepared, not under the influence. We need a Europe that educates people better, protects them better, and gives people responsibility. More financial literacy means more freedom to decide, and this is the kind of freedom that this report intends to reinforce. Thank you.
Speaker 198
Thank you very much. Now, on behalf of the commission, Commissioner Albuquerque, please.
Speaker 206
Madam President, honorable members, I welcome this timely and thoughtful report and thank the rapporteur, Lydia Preira, for her excellent work. We fully share the report's central message. Financial literacy is an essential life skill, and it is becoming ever more important in an increasingly digital, complex, and fast-moving financial environment. Financial literacy helps citizens make informed decisions, build resilience, avoid scams and fraud, and plan for their future. It is also an important enabler of the savings and investments union by providing citizens with information on how to better manage their savings.
Speaker 205
In September 2025, the commission adopted its communication on empowering EU citizens through financial literacy as part of the savings and investments union strategy. The strategy is built around four pillars. One, coordination and best practices. Second, communication and awareness-raising. The third, monitoring progress and assessing impacts.
And fourth, improving access to funding for financial literacy initiatives, including for research. Moreover, the retail investment strategy, as politically agreed by co-legislators in December 2025, also strengthens our efforts on financial literacy. It encourages member states to equip citizens with the knowledge and confidence to understand both the risks and the potential benefits of investing, and to critically assess the advice they receive. I therefore welcome the broad alignment between parliament's report and the commission's strategy, particularly on lifelong learning, support for vulnerable groups, stronger digital and media literacy, and the principle that financial education should complement, not replace, investor protection. I also welcome the report's balanced approach to finfluencers.
Digital communication challenges channels can play a positive role in reaching audiences that traditional institutions may struggle to engage, particularly young people. Content creators who have become important opinion makers can make financial topics more accessible and relatable. However, these opportunities come with risks. As the report notes, influencers may spread misleading or incomplete information. So short-form content can lack nuance or verification.
Some actors may have conflicts of interest and engage in hidden advertising or even fraudulent schemes. Many influencers are influenced directly or indirectly by private companies promoting products or platforms. Their commercial incentives may not always align with consumers' best interests. This is why the risk package underlines the need for greater vigilance by regulators in this space, to better protect citizens. I would therefore underline the importance of ensuring transparency, protection of investors, and enforcement in this area, including as regards disclosure of paid partnerships and conflicts of interest, appropriate risk warnings for high-risk products, and cooperation between platforms and competent authorities.
I look forward to continued cooperation with the parliament in a partnership to ensure the SIU remains a project built on integrity and inclusion. Thank you.
Speaker 198
Thank you very much, commissioner. Now for the culture and education committee, Miss Ribeginer.
Diana Riba i Giner
Thank you very much. Every day, we make financial decisions about when we spend, how we save, what we're going to do when it comes to tax returns, what's the best choice. However, how many of you remember having learned something about this in school? And that means that young people are learning about finance only on social networks. So at times, that can be good, but there are other times when it's someone who is shirtless, who's promising them that they can win a lot, earn a lot of money in just a week’s time.
And no one is telling them about the risk of this investment, and that is where we are failing. We cannot allow financial education to be divvied out by platforms. We have to have a good education for equal opportunity. It's a k key. We need three things.
Financial education from the earliest age and throughout lifetime, responsibility from influencers and platforms, the same rules for all people, whether they be online or offline. We cannot allow algorithms or the manipulation thereof as a way to influence the future of our young people. Thank you.
Thank.
Esther Herranz García
You, president, commissioner. I should like to begin by congratulating the rapporteur for this report. Miss Pereira, you have carried out excellent work. Financial education is not a technical issue, and it is not a luxury or something that's just additional. It is a fundamental skill.
Speaker 208
It is needed for citizens to be able to be fully independent. However, the reality in Europe is extremely worrisome. Only 18% of European citizens have enough financial education, or in countries like mine, Spain, it's even lower. It's at 12%. Therefore, we have a structural problem here.
If Europe wants to be more competitive, it has to begin with the basic steps, making sure that its citizens can make informed economic decisions, decisions that are free and responsible decisions. And for this, we need a coordinated strategy among member states, the EU institutions, and the private sector. Financial education cannot be ancillary. It has to become a priority and a part of our school curricula in every single education system of our member states. So we know what the diagnosis is.
We all now need to act. Without financial education, there will not be an informed decision. There will be no savings. There will not be investments, and there will not be economic empowerment. For Europe to be more competitive, we need a sustainable, measurable, and ambitious strategy that puts financial education at the heart of public policy.
All in all, we need to take these skills and make them part of a real strategy. Thank you.
President.
Carla Tavares
Madam President, Commissioner, first of all, I'd like to congratulate my colleague, Lydia, for all the work that she's done. She's been very inclusive. She's been a unifier in putting together the report. We've got growing inflation. We've got a digital transition.
We've got a complicated financial market, and it's important that European citizens need to know how to protect their money. So financial literacy is no longer just an exor. It's a structural policy for the European Union. In the report, we make clear proposals to try to make financial literacy available to everyone. It needs to be available at school, at work, and throughout life.
And it also needs to be available to the most vulnerable groups. Financial literacy is in the public interest. It's in the interest of social inclusion and equality. We try to put forward measures for dealing with crypto assets, influencers, and alert people to problems like financial disinformation and fraud. Digital platforms are important players in bringing digital financial literacy to new audiences.
However, we need to ensure that financial information on social networks is credible, transparent, and secure. Better financial literacy means more money, less indebtedness for families, more security, and more confidence. Knowing what we do with our money is a way for us to better protect our collective future. Thank you.
Speaker 214
Dear colleagues, financial literacy is not a technical issue which is only the domain of experts. No. It is about protecting people and making sure they shoulder their responsibilities. We are exposed to an ever-growing number of financial products which are more and more complex. Furthermore, there are veiled conflicts of interest, and there are misleading commercial practices on digital platforms.
Speaker 213
Against this backdrop, what we need to do is bolster financial education. We need to ensure that citizens can remain free, but this action needs to be proportionate. It should not be a pretext to target a certain group of European citizens and make them invest in green, non-profitable schemes. Member states should keep national priorities at heart. This is a report which is moving in the right direction, but we will remain cautious.
Thank you very much.
Thank.
Giovanni Crosetto
Thank you very much, President. The savings and investment union, the main aim here is to channel private savings that we have in our savings accounts. And to do this, financial education certainly has a fundamental role to play, because it allows us to understand what actually makes the market economy work and enables us to understand that a lack of investment means losing money due to the erosion of purchasing power due to inflation. All of this would enable us to really understand and accept the financial principles of risk versus return, and this would mean that we normalize the concept of risk. Colleagues, today, more than ever, we need to stress the role that finfluencers can play, especially when they are dealing in dangerous products such as cryptocurrencies.
Billy Kelleher
There is an estimated 13,000,000,000,000 sitting on deposits in the European Union, earning on average around 1.6 to 1.8% per annum. In short, this money is sitting stagnant while, instead, it could be invested into Europe's real economy and, in turn, delivering returns for citizens. Europe has made great strides in making the EU capital markets a more attractive place for citizens to invest. For example, the introduction of the savings and investment account in each member state will provide a simple vehicle for investment. Improving the financial literacy of EU citizens is a cornerstone for strengthening the capital markets and making the EU economy more sustainable.
Financial literacy is not only about knowing how to invest in stocks and shares, it's about knowing how to manage a household budget. It's about understanding the compound interest on your mortgage. It's an entrepreneur having the knowledge and the confidence to take out a business loan. It's a young person understanding the importance of having a pension and the options for building it over time. I strongly support this report and the multifaceted approach it recommends.
We need to combine lifelong learning with education targeting adults or vulnerable communities to complement traditional education with new channels, to use both private and public sector initiatives, and to acknowledge the potential role of influencers as ambassadors for financial literacy while stamping down on misleading practices.
Speaker 215
Thank you, madam president. The EU has zero credibility to lecture anyone on financial literacy and even less so on competitiveness because it is one of the worst investors on the planet, wasting money, missing opportunities, and surviving only because European taxpayers pay for its failures. And yet you dare to lecture them because your policies are actually destroying wealth with deindustrialization, state-driven investment, self-inflicted economic damage through sanctions. With the twentieth sanctions package now, more isolation, more costs, all paid by our citizens. In Bulgaria, people are already under great pressure from euro adoption, and real wages are falling.
Savings are shrinking, and investment is collapsing. So people don't need lectures on how to manage less money. And the idea of redirecting national pension savings into markets without real consent, this is a very questionable undertaking, because you have already eroded people's wealth, and they feel it every day.
Thank.
Speaker 187
Thank you very much. Missus Vincik is next. Madam president, madam commissioner, Europe is a strong continent, but it's not a continent for investors, unfortunately. Many investors just go for security. About €10,000,000,000, sorry.
€10,000,000,000,000 are in bank deposits, which could be pretty useful for our economic growth. Financing is not finance, financial literacy is not just a minor side issue, but, no, it could be a major lever, particularly for young people. Young people are different from us. They're looking at disinformation. They're trying to figure out where there's hidden advertising.
So financial literacy is one of the best protections that they can have. If you understand how markets work, if you can assess risk, then you'll make better decisions and won't end up as a victim. Financial influence has to stick to the rules. It can't be that banks are always strictly controlled, but all sorts of recommendations from influencers are never controlled by anyone. The most important thing is that we should have less bureaucracy in the future.
Speaker 190
There needs to be a responsibility in the digital space, and I think that that's the best way for us to get a more competitive European Union.
Thank.
Thank you very much, mister Fernandez.
Jonás Fernández
President. President, commissioner, colleagues, global retail investors say that the top strength for generation Z, where they're getting information about the financial sector, that is all on social platforms. And on social platforms, we see good influencers, good communicators, who are trying to assist young people in managing their wealth. But at the same time, there are also people on platforms where you have influencers that have opinions, that have hidden conflicts of interests, and that are using these social platforms to come up with new Ponzi schemes to steal the wealth of our youngest citizens. Lindy Pereira has come up with a good report with good recommendations to establish a framework that tries to bring together all of these efforts, but also to look at those frauds where they're trying to mislead or misinform our young people.
And I think the parliament and the commission would do very well to factor them in. Thank you.
Stéphanie Yon-Courtin
Thank you very much, President. Commissioner, loaning money, preparing your retirement, filling in your tax return, these are all daily things that we do. But who actually teaches you how to do this? In school, you learn maths, but you don't learn financial literacy. So you take a lot of decisions blindly.
And this is bad, especially for young people, because the future generations are going to get their information from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and all the rest. And they are going to come across finfluencers. These are Financial Advisors 2.0. They have a very simplistic view. You can become a millionaire in one click, thanks to crypto.
Speaker 219
Fifty percent of young people have already been victims of a scam. I'd like to thank my colleague Lydia Pereira for her report. Europe is acting by bringing an end to the era of impunity. We have a future law on retail investments. That means we can sanction influencers.
Stéphanie Yon-Courtin
They have to sign up to a European register. And at a national level, member states also need to shoulder their responsibilities. What Europe is starting to regulate today, we need to go further with a real law on influencers because digital Europe knows no borders. Thank you.
Thank.
Dariusz Joński
you. Thank you, ma'am, President. We're talking today about safety online, but the real problem runs deeper. In Poland, we have a massive scandal on cryptocurrencies, and it involves politicians of two parties who are present today. And, together with the Polish president, they have put Polish citizens at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of Polish zloty.
And this was happening when the European Union was working on the regulation of cryptocurrencies. In my country, the prime minister, Donald Tusk, presented a bill that would put the European regulations into practice. And it turns out that there are no accidents because the company whose boss first ran away to Monaco and then to Israel actually sponsored Polish politicians, and he expected only one thing in return, namely blocking the bill on cryptocurrencies. And we also know that this company is engaged in consultancy. So good law, good regulations are not enough.
Nikos Papandreou
Thank you very much. The next speaker is now Shropab Ambreo. Oh.
Thank you, Madam President. We are going through an Internet era, and we know that there are good things on the Internet, but there are also bad things. It's true that, influences now exist over recent times, and we get good advice because we get bad advice. Now I am an economist, so I'll split this point into two parts. Firstly, can we have clear rules?
Can we have an outsourced wiki which could be independent? At the same time, we could focus on teaching and culture. So I don't necessarily agree with the way it's been presented here, but we do need to learn how or what the best way to learn about this is. We need to understand how we are going to make a child learn about money.
Thank you, Mr. Mandler.
Thank.
Lukas Mandl
you. A while ago, I saw a post from the European Commission, which essentially said that we need to mobilize European savings for our competitiveness. And then there was a comment saying that the European Commission will not get its hands on my savings. And I'd like to tell these people that, of course, that's not the idea. They won't get their hands on your savings.
We, as parliamentarians, would be the first to speak out against that. We're on the other side, as it were. We represent the citizens, and we want our savings to be used for the benefit of European competitiveness because that's what we need. We need an upsurge because we're lagging behind China and the US. China had 12-fold the growth they had before the pandemic.
The US, sevenfold. We're not using our funds appropriately in the capital markets. We need to find the right language. We need to set up the right framework to make sure that we can invest in our economy to the benefit of future generations.
Speaker 198
Thank you very much. That brings to an end the main part of the debate. I have seven requests to catch the eye. There are seven, so we need to every stick to their speaking time. The next, the first one is Mister Lopez Aguilar.
Juan Fernando López Aguilar
Thank you very much. The commission, the parliament has asked for digital literacy programs for ages in order to make it possible for citizens to deal with implications of algorithms, technological platforms, and so forth. Financial literacy is absolutely imperative in order to protect everybody, but most of all, the vulnerable people. Single parents, older people, young people who are also entitled to protection so that they can learn how to nurture their savings and how to invest without being exposed to all the kinds of criminality and scams that there are out there on the Internet. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that their interests are protected.
We all have an interest in having proper protection, and the correct way forward is for the European Union to have a proper financial education program. Of course, this doesn't mean it's not going to scrutinize what's going on in the financial markets, but it needs to educate its citizens. Thank you.
Thank.
Ciaran Mullooly
Thank you, chair. Two lines from a television advertisement in 2007. I don't know what a tracker mortgage is. I don't understand what APR is. If they were delivered on the back of a bus in a TV ad, my first taste of financial literacy.
Regrettably, we didn't get enough of it in Ireland. In a short period of time, the financial regulator who made the ad found himself dealing with a much more serious problem with regard to the regulation of the financial industry. But ten years later, we found out that the banks were not very good at financial literacy either. Irish banks were fined over 270,000,000 in total for a widespread tracker mortgage scandal. Unfair complaints handling, denying customers the right to track rates, running failings in the treatment of over 10,000 accounts is not funny because some people lost their homes.
Hopefully, we've learned from that episode, a shameful episode for the Bank of Ireland, AIB, Ulster Bank, KBC, and Permanent TSB. Now we need this more than ever, we need a proper financial literacy scheme. As we prepare for the Savings and Investment Union, we must learn our lessons, and we must move forward with digital support and education even at secondary level. Let's bring it on, and do it right this time.
Thank.
João Oliveira
Thank you, madam president. Commissioner Abu Kirk, this debate is a good example of the EU's interest and what they serve. You promote increased cost of living, reducing salaries, and then you say they would need to inform people about the risks of borrowing and caution that needs to be had. The EU is promoting the financialization of the economy. You accept the emission or issuance of Bitcoins without any control by the central banks.
The EU tolerates speculation, but then says that we need to support the consumers and to make them aware of the possible risks. In the name of free movement of capital, you liberalize markets. You jeopardize people's savings in the bank. And then you say it's the workers, the normal people need to be, need to have this information clarified to them. When people have all the financial literacy that they have a right to, and put an end to your policies.
Thank.
thank you very much. The next speaker is.
Siegbert Frank Droese
Colleagues. There are a lot of influencers out there. They have blogs. There's a lot of work they put into that, and I commend it. But it's up to us what we do with this.
This, any report, was supposed to be a contribution to financial education. But at the end of the day, it's about more centralization and control. We're trying to control people's opinions, which is trying to paint these big influences as abusing the markets, but this is a form of censorship. Financial education isn't gone about in a neutral way. It's ideological.
We want to steer the thinking of people. This isn't a harmless any report. We're trying to control opinions, capital, and competencies. We should tear up this report and throw it in the bin.
Thank.
Diana Iovanovici Şoşoacă
Thank you very much. She wants financial education in schools, but who's gonna teach it? How many MEPs have training in terms of finance? How many commissioners know anything about finance? How many members of national parliaments are educated in the field, or how many ministers?
Now you want to censor influencers, financial, politics. You never like the opinions of anyone else but yourselves because you've turned the EU into a dictatorship. You want total control. You want to muzzle the influences because you're incapable of coming up with financial and economic policies that would bring true development to families and the citizens. And you've done the same with us, the members of parliament.
Every month, you suspend the immunity of members of parliament. It's shameful. Put an end to this dictatorship. You talk about teaching the people how to manage their funds, but you've destroyed the economy, and you have impoverished the whole EU. Thank you.
Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much, commissioner, president. I would like to thank Missus Lydia Pereira. It was a very timely report with clear guidelines. No doubt, we have to put efforts that in all EU member states, in all 27 member states, there are national programs on different levels for different social groups to ensure minimum standards in all countries, in order to increase financial literacy. For us, it is very important to do that because it's a real tragedy when elderly, when young people attempt with financial pyramids, with easy money by all those influencers on different platforms.
And we also have to think about criminal liability for fraud and financial.
Thank you, Miss Grapini.
Maria Grapini
Thank you, chair. Thank you, commissioner. Once again, the commission has an annual report, a very good one. You cannot be free. You cannot take decisions on how to spend your money, be it much or little, if you don't have a little bit of financial literacy.
And you don't have to do this now, when we are adults or when we are starting a business. We have to do this starting from the school years. And there is one more thing we have to understand, and the children and adults have to understand why it is good for them to have this literacy, because it has been said there are many influencers. There are a lot of hackers. There are a lot of people cheating.
People are left homeless. Youngsters started a business and they went bankrupt. We need this, but we can only draft a report. You have the decision, and we wait for a concrete proposal from you. How can we draft a European policy for financial literacy in order to have more financial literacy?
Thank you.
Speaker 236
Thank you very much. Commissioner Abu Kecke, would you like to close the debate first?
Speaker 206
Thank you, madam president, and thank you, honorable members, for your engagement and your support. I noted with interest the report's references to our financial literacy ambassadors' initiative. The ambassadors are intended to complement traditional communication channels by improving outreach and engagement, including online, and by helping make financial literacy information more accessible and relatable. The first meeting of the ambassadors network, which I chaired, was on March 16. Unlike influencers in the conventional sense, ambassadors are intended to operate in the public interest, promoting trustworthy and evidence-based communication.
Speaker 205
Some may have a social media presence or use digital communication methods, but they are not intended to promote specific financial products or services. We must nevertheless recognize the importance of maintaining high standards of independence, transparency, and public trust, and I take note of the proposed call to review the uptake and effectiveness of the strategy, including the ambassador's network. I am happy with the strong alignment between this report and the ongoing commission work. However, some proposals may merit further reflection. Given that the financial literacy strategy already foresees the development of a voluntary principle-based European code of conduct for private and not-for-profit organizations, additional proposals such as a credibility mechanism or voluntary seal for influencers would require careful consideration to avoid fragmentation or implying formal endorsement.
In conclusion, I welcome parliament's support and ambition. We share the objective of empowering citizens to make informed financial decisions and to participate responsibly and confidently in financial markets, where appropriate. We both also recognize the opportunities created by digital communication and by responsible online creators, and the need to remain vigilant to manage the risk. My services and I look forward to continuing to work with parliament, member states, and stakeholders to deliver on this shared objective. Thank you.
Lídia Pereira
Thank you very much, Commissioner Pereira, to conclude for us.
Thank you, madam president, colleagues. I think this debate shows that financial literacy has become a central issue. Now before anything else, I'd like to thank all of the MEPs that have been actively involved in drawing up these proposals. I'd also like to thank the commission. You know, we're very much aligned on our proposals.
Speaker 201
And when we talk about financial literacy, we're talking about something which is key to people's freedom, protection, and social justice. This report has come from a range of balances. We don't want paternalism. We don't want to remove people's personal responsibility. We don't want to change the investor protection framework.
What this report does is recognize something which is evident in a more complex and more digital financial world. Citizens need more tools to be able to make better decisions with more protection against those who want to trick them. So we need first, we need training, lifelong training. We also need protection simplification. If we want more Europeans who save, then we're gonna need clearer and more comparable information.
People are taking decisions. We also want to highlight the point about responsibility. If you act in the digital space, we're not talking about censoring content creators. It's want to make sure that there's transparency about conflicts of interest. We want more accountability from platform generation to fraud, manipulation, and sharing false information.
We don't want to tell people what to do with their money. They can decide better than once they've been on land to do that with more confidence. Once again, thank you to everyone, but it needs to be clear. Unfortunately, we have the far left and far right here, and they really are very much aligned on a whole range of points which has been clear from this whole process.
Speaker 198
Thank you very much. That concludes the debate. The next vote will take place on Thursday. The next item on our agenda is the report from Zelena Zofko, the role of ocean diplomacy for the competitiveness of the EU fisheries and agriculture sector. There's just one round of political group speakers in this debate, so there are no blue cards, and there is no catch in the eye.
Željana Zovko
So, without further ado, the rapporteur,
Mister commissioner, Kadi's colleagues, the fisheries and aquaculture sector in the European Union amount to 5,500,000,000. They also directly employ 193000 people. More than 60%, 65% of the European Union territories are marine areas. This is also, the European Union oversees the biggest maritime domain in the world, more than 25,000,000 square kilometers. So the sea is the foundation of our economy, of our connectedness, and of our everyday life.
But behind these numbers, there are people and there are communities that make a living of the sea. Small fisheries are the backbone of our coastal communities. It preserves the tradition. It provides the livelihoods. And at the same time, these communities are facing very serious challenges, very difficult working conditions, socioeconomic pressures, so on.
So in this context, the European Union has a very particular responsibility and also an opportunity to lead the global management of the oceans. This is why the pact on oceans is very important. It has given us a framework and has motivated us to think strategically about the oceans. Looking at the whole situation with the Strait of Hormuz and the trade, this only goes to show how important seafaring is, how important seas are, and how important it is to manage the maritime domain. This is why we have come up with this idea of ocean diplomacy.
This report gives us a very concrete direction. Ocean diplomacy must become a tool that will help us preserve our competitiveness and our unique position. Ocean diplomacy must be more present in the external actions of the European Union. This is particularly important when it comes to our role in international fisheries organizations. We need to harmonize the rules and also work on a greater responsibility of all, the signatories and states.
So this is why multilateral negotiations are very important, and so are the rules and their implementation. All of this is very important for the competitiveness of this sector. We need to fight illegal and unregulated fisheries. We need to have better monitoring systems and more efficient mechanisms. If the rules are infringed, transparency and good information to consumers should be at the forefront of our approach.
Citizens should have the right to know where their food comes from, how it was caught, and under what conditions. This is why we need to have rules that secure the level playing field for everyone based on the comparable social and economic standards. For ocean diplomacy to function and to be an impetus to our competitiveness, we also need to take care of the intergenerational aspect of this sector. We also need to take care of the digitalized fleet, better education, upskilling, and conditions. Without people in this sector of fisheries, there won't be food safety, and there won't be a sustainable blue economy.
We need to simplify administrative procedures. We also need to decrease the red tape so that we secure more investments and strengthen food safety. I'd like to thank all the shadow rapporteurs. They have contributed greatly to this rapporteur, and I invite you all to vote on this report tomorrow. Thank you.
Commissioner Kadis.
Speaker 242
Honorable members, let me begin by sincerely thanking Missus Zofcom for her report, which is a comprehensive and forward-looking contribution to shaping the EU's ocean diplomacy. This report comes at a crucial moment. The union faces growing challenges at sea, its outermost regions, islands, and its coastline, from environmental pressures and climate impacts to geopolitical competition in an increasingly volatile context and the need to ensure fair conditions for our fishers. The European Commission recognizes the importance of ocean diplomacy and international ocean governance. One of the six pillars of the European Ocean Pact focuses on this area.
Speaker 241
The issues raised in the report are directly informing the work currently underway in the commission, in particular on fisheries' external action. In this context, its strong emphasis on ocean diplomacy for the competitiveness of our sector is both timely and well-placed. The commission fully agrees that the union should leverage its engagement in multilateral fora. Regional fisheries management organizations and sustainable fisheries partnership agreements are strategic instruments of ocean diplomacy to promote sustainable fisheries, transparency, and accountability globally. We will also continue engaging with coastal states to guarantee EU fishers fair and sustainable fishing opportunities, and a genuine level playing field while preventing overfishing.
Speaker 243
The report also highlights the importance of strengthening transparency, including on fleet activities and beneficial ownership, and of making full use of available instruments to address noncompliance. The commission will take these elements forward in its reflections, including regarding how the Union can strengthen enforcement. As the fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing remains a top priority, we will also pursue the implementation of the new digital certification system for fisheries products entering the EU, the CATCH system, while boosting synergies between the common fisheries policy, trade, and international partnerships. I also take note of your call to enhance the EU's global outreach and leadership through a more strategic and globally influential communication approach. This should go hand in hand with deeper partnerships, notably in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Speaker 241
Building on these efforts, I'm launching the process for a new MedFish forever poly political declaration with a high-level conference on May 5 in Cyprus, to which the European Parliament has been invited. Honorable members, this report is also complementary to the ongoing evaluation of the common fisheries policy regulation, which will form the basis for developing the upcoming visual vision for fisheries and aquaculture with a 2040 perspective, including a strategy for fisheries' external action. As we assess the CFP regulation, we are looking closely at how to simplify procedures, reduce burdens, and ensure that our framework remains fit for purpose in a rapidly changing context. We will not hesitate to propose targeted amendments if it is needed. Your points on integrating fisheries more fully into broader food security strategies, supporting combat, competitiveness and sustainability, and ensuring fair conditions for all operators, including in outermost regions, will be carefully considered in this exercise.
So I look forward to hearing your views and to continuing our close cooperation as we advance towards a fishery sector that is competitive, sustainable, and underpinned by healthy oceans. Thank you for your attention.
Speaker 256
We'll now go on to the speakers for the political groups. First of all, Mr. Lukanenic.
Isabelle Le Callennec
Thank you, madam president, commissioner. The sea is a common good, a space of rich and natural resources, but also a carbon sink. Today, in the seas and oceans, there are those who respect international law and those who contest or violate international law. 45 after the signature of the Montego Bay treaty, I think it's time for the EU to take the lead in global ocean diplomacy. That's the aim of this report.
It calls for an increase in fighter and IUU fishing. We need to strengthen naval military missions from the EU. We need to apply also to import a product the same social and environmental rules which we apply to European fisheries. This is a question of security and sovereignty. Thank you very much.
Gabriel, group.
Giuseppe Lupo
Thank you very much. On behalf of the S and D, Mr. Lupo. Thank you very much indeed, President, Commissioner, colleagues. This is a report on Volusian diplomacy, which is highly relevant, touching on a strategic priority for the European Union, the future of fisheries, and our coasts. Italy has many islands as well as a long coastline.
Sicily and Sardinia and all the fishers down our coast suffer on a daily basis from unfair competition. Equally, escalating fuel costs threaten their very survival, not just their competitiveness, their income, their ability to make ends meet, their ability to fish enough fish to create a future for younger people in the industry. All these things are under threat. This is why we need to have a new generation of fisheries agreements with countries such as the North African countries, based on mutuality, on mutual protection of our valuable resources, which are so vital to the peoples of the Mediterranean in particular. We need to invest in the future of fisheries.
Speaker 245
We need to invest in new generations, and we need to invest in the blue economy. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker, mister Jaime for the Patriots.
Speaker 255
Well, no, Mr. Cadiz. Ocean democracy at the European level won't save fisheries, and won't make us more competitive. What's killing our fisheries is the European technocrats. Centralization, uniformization of decisions, which is destroying the diversity and the specificity of our territories. We need to find back to reality.
The reality out there is that the nations belong to us. France has 40% of the 25,000,000 square kilometers we're talking about, so 10,000,000. So we're very concerned. And it's in large part to our overseas territories and Miquelon, New Caledonia, etcetera, which give us weight in the international debate on oceans. They're a key part of our power and our national sovereignty.
Speaker 248
The European Commission is incompetent and is talking about some kind of fictitious power we're supposed to have, but it does not exist. We're talking about our waters, our fisheries, and our food sovereignty, a very serious issue. Much too serious to give it to the hands of the commission.
Nora Junco García
You, Madam President, Commissioner. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you, Miss Sofko, for this report. It's obviously a very complete report. But if we talk about ocean diplomacy and competitiveness, well, we need to focus on competitiveness. What competitiveness?
We're asking our fishers for more traceability, high levels of controlled decarbonization, innovation reports, and more and more requirements. On top of this, now the commission is proposing a huge cut for the fisheries in the next program period. So we are putting out more criteria, but we're reducing the budget. And then we wonder why businesses are disappearing, and we're losing employment in our coastal regions. Maybe that is the plan.
Maybe that's what people want, that Europe stops fishing, but we'll still go on importing fish and eating fish that's produced with different standards. Ocean diplomacy should serve to support sustainable oceans, yes, but should also call for reciprocity and real traceability so that flag state and area of catch are actually real, because we need to ensure that we're not just supporting large industrial businesses. We're going to kill all life in the coastal areas.
Karin Karlsbro
President, commission, colleagues, Russia's shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea, the threat to the transport routes in the Middle East, and increased tensions in the Arctic. Today's dangerous geopolitical situation is highly visible also in our oceans and coastal communities. The EU is already a global ocean power, and we can do more by using our soft power to act stronger. This is also the core message of the European Parliament's report on ocean diplomacy. Without a strong global multilateral framework, it's impossible to fight overfishing and harmful subsidies.
Therefore, we warmly welcome this strategic and timely report on ocean diplomacy. Thank you very much, and thank you to the rapporteur.
Speaker 252
The ocean is a new frontier of humanity. For many years, we've tried to uphold space and science cooperation. We should do the same for the oceans. Unbridled capitalism is harming our seas. They're the subject of geopolitical conflicts.
The Strait of Hormuz is an example, but also how we exploit our planet when it comes to overfishing, oil, etcetera. The impacts are dramatic. Let's have a look at krill fishing. In Australia, it has had a huge impact on biodiversity. Seals, whales, etc. are suffering.
It has a very important role in the oceans and also the climate. The EU is able to put an end to the successive destructive fishing. We had two amendments on this. I would call on you to adopt them because they're of key importance when it comes to our oceans. The first one is reducing the debt damage, and the second is having a long term approach in protection.
This is key for our oceans and our planet.
Thank you very much. President,
Siegbert Frank Droese
Colleagues, what doesn't work in Europe? Well, we're seeing that the fisheries sector isn't working. Ocean diplomacy is another word for colonialism. We're seeing agriculture booming around the world, but it's not working here in Europe because energy is too expensive. But we're seeing very successful fishing in Indonesia, for example.
And, obviously, we're still importing Russian fish because it's needed for food security in Europe. And, obviously, there's also a social issue. We this Europe does not have enough fish, and the report recognizes the international moratorium for seabed mining. However, there's a number of other countries, the US and China, which are proliferating from this. Commissioner, when in the next MFF, we're not providing enough fish money for fisheries, and we'll just have fish made in China.
Thank you very much. Commissioner Cadiz.
Speaker 241
Honorable members, thank you for this engaging debate. Your contributions will directly inform our next steps. European leadership in international ocean governance and diplomacy is not optional. It is essential. European leadership in international ocean governance is, should be essential.
In this context, the union must continue to shape the global agenda, defend and uphold a rules-based order, and drive ambition at the international level. We are already doing so through concrete action. As announced by the commission president in March, OceanEye, the European Ocean Observation Initiative, is a flagship effort to strengthen ocean knowledge, improve data sharing, and underpin science-based decision making together with like-minded partners worldwide. At the same time, we are advancing key multilateral and bilateral processes, including the swift implementation of the so-called BB and J agreement and the rollout of a new generation of sustainable partnership agreements. We also stand firm on a precautionary approach to seabed mining, a memorandum moratorium until robust scientific evidence and safeguards are in place.
But as some of you have pointed out, ambition must be matched with means. Recent crises, including the current fuel price shock following the conflict in the Middle East, have shown how essential it is to support our fishers, notably through the compensation schemes under the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund. The European Commission reacted rapidly and triggered the crisis mechanism under MFAP to enable the member states to provide support to the sector. We will continue to monitor the situation in close cooperation with the sector and the member states, and make sure that our features remain competitive in these difficult times. Thank you.
Thank.
Željana Zovko
That's it. Under the arrival of the president, dear commissioner. The
EU plans to lead the ocean governments and cooperate with all relevant partners in sustainable ocean governance. This requires additional capacity strengthening for external action in order to have diplomats who understand what ocean governance is and who can be efficient in defending our interests globally. At the same time, significant financial resources are needed in order to preserve the strategically important fishery sector, meet our international obligations, and ensure resilience of coastal communities. This is why I invite the commission to ensure an easier access to finances for small fishermen in order to make sure that the existing EU instruments are better used. So, dear commissioner, yes, you do need more money because taking into account all that you have to do for our fishermen, and this is why we need more money in the next budget for our fishermen.
Ocean diplomacy is no longer a choice. It is rather a tool that allows us to defend our standards, increase our competitiveness, and in order to make sure that those who respect the rules are not placed in an unfavorable position. Without a strong and sustainable fishery sector, we cannot have long-term food security nor a stable future for our coastal communities. Europe has the knowledge and global weight and the know-how. What we need to do now is to be determined to defend those standards outside our borders too.
Thank.
Speaker 198
Thank you very much, colleagues. That concludes the debate. So that debate is now closed. The vote will take place tomorrow. The next item on the agenda is one-minute speeches.
May I just say to you colleagues that you can remain at your desk to speak, and you must not speak for more than 1 minute? The first speaker is Mr. Toin.
Speaker 258
Dear Chair, thank you for the floor, dear colleagues. After the elections in Slovenia recently, people said very clearly that they want to change. If the new law in the government is adopted this week in the parliament, probably this will mean that Slovenia will get a new right-leaning government. This is a good sign. So I'd like to ask you very sincerely, please don't fall for people who try to scare you saying that a right leaning government will mean populist pro Russian anti NATO government.
This definitely is not the case. If anything, the right wing governments have always been pro-European, building our common European Union on the basis of the European Union from the very beginning. Thank you.
Maria Grapini
Commissioner, dear colleagues, I want to talk about the urban wastewater treatment directive. We all want a clean environment. We all want clean water. But, commissioner, from all the discussions I've had with specialists, it looks like the commission is yet to have an impact study. The entire burden falls on the pharmaceutical industry.
There are 52 plants in my country likely to shut down unless the directive is revised. We know for medical drugs, prices are imposed from above. If there's an additional fee, if there's an additional cost, you can't change the price. And we know when it comes to generics, 70% of them service the entire population and cover 70% of the needs of the population. It's very important to carry out an impact study with a neutral impartial party with specialists because this directive that we need in order to have clean waters, but it should not transfer the burden to the pharmaceutical industry and to the cosmetics industry.
I've sent a lot of letters. There's a proposal for a resolution. But if we continue along this path, we won't be able to treat our sick in the EU. Thank.
Speaker 261
Thank you very much. The next speaker is Miss Ferring. Thank you, chair. Butrade.
Speaker 265
Thank you. Batrax is what we see in trend this year in Ukraine with Cyrillic letters in Hungary, in Hungarian. I'm from Transcarpathian, and I know that Hungarian names of places are being lost. Our local communes have competence over linguistic matters, but this isn't being protected. And the signs with the names of places are being replaced.
Speaker 273
In some areas, we had to collect funds to keep the names of the places. The minority has the right to speak their own language. That is a principle and is enshrined in the Copenhagen criteria. However, this requires funds. And in Ukraine, minorities should be treated equally.
Thank you.
Beatrice Timgren
Are now faced with a very specific situation. We have cigarettes which is sold on the street, and this is a huge risk for public health. Now there are alternatives to look for in Sweden. We've tried to focus on reality rather than ideology. And we have the lowest number of smokers in Europe.
There's the lowest number of deaths as a result of this. But France has chosen ideology, everyone has to pay the price for this. Even the Swedish who live or work or visit family in France, they're all affected by this. You know, Mr. Macron is just turning away from the reality. Policy has consequences.
Speaker 278
More French people are going to die as a result of tobacco, and there'll be an impact for the rest of the year. We shouldn't follow France's example.
Thank you, Mr. Khan.
Barry Cowen
Thank you, chair. We often talk about sustainability here in the chamber, the interconnectivity of the three pillars associated with it: economic, social, and environmental. Our vision for the future of agriculture alludes to the importance of this on many occasions and sets out an ambitious roadmap for making agriculture a sustainable and profitable, successful sector, one that's attractive to new entrants and provides real livelihood for those already working the land. But when we look at the cap budget in the proposed MFF, we see that there simply isn't the political will to back up that ambition. And once again, our farmers have been asked to do more for less.
A 20% cut, for example, is not acceptable. This week, the parliament will vote on its ring-fenced 433,000,000,000 for the cap, a significant increase, of course, and one we'll have to fight hard to secure. But we can't simply celebrate a number. We know the shortfall remains real, and it's not enough to stand here and shout about it as many do. As cap negotiator, I've worked hard to find a concrete forward path.
As a parliament, we have the power to act, and I would commit to fully ring-fence the 45,000,000,000 midterm amount and the 48,000,000,000 rural target proposed within the cap. That path exists, and it's clear. And I would urge my colleagues to support this proposal. Thank you.
You, Mister Smith.
Speaker 268
Thank you, madam president. Dear colleagues, Axel was 16 years old. He died on 06/18/2025 as part of his work experience. The young interns or apprentices are particularly exposed to accidents, and during this silent march, workers die in the workplace. Every day in France between two or three people die at work, and it's 170,000 a year. Why do you die from professional illnesses?
Speaker 267
This is families' broken and huge problems. Now we need to say that death in the workplace is not fatalities as source of political choices as a result of a model which continues to operate exploiting people, which consider tracer training, health and safety, and regulation as breaks to capitalist accumulation. For Axel, for all those who every year are victims of workplace accidents, will continue to fight to change the world.
Thank.
Speaker 269
thank you very much. The next speaker, mister Jungbrut. President, what's going on at the moment in Randolph House is very worrying in terms of the future of democracy and the rule of law in Germany and elsewhere. After a strong AFD showing in the March elections, all of a sudden, the rules have been changed precisely where the opposition should be playing a strong role in opposition. An investigatory committee is supposed to be elevated to such a status that really it's only something that our government can decide to establish.
Speaker 270
That is the way in which any sort of scrutiny is supposed to be carried out there. Trust in democracy is lessened with every election. It's simply undermining the very principle of parliamentary democracy. If you constrain the power of the opposition, then really that is repression. You're moving further and further away from democracy and further away from the political change, which so many people in Germany want to see.
Speaker 271
President, dear colleagues, a lot of money goes through Brussels, but whether it reaches the right pockets is a good question. We've got the European Globalization Adjustment Fund, which is to be used for mass layoffs, for example, and to show that Europe has a social side to it. But if you take a closer look, you'll find that more than half of the applications come from Belgium. The authorities in Belgium seem to be a bit smarter or know the right people, and they're very good at accessing EU funds. Now the EU funds aren't supposed to replace national uninsured unemployment insurance or replace national programs.
Very often, this means that it's not the people who were laid off that benefit. It's consultancies that are making a lot of profits. Maybe we should take a closer look at what actually happens to European taxpayers' money. Europe won't become more social by us funding bureaucracy and consultancies.
Thank you, Mr. Steers. The next.
Davor Ivo Stier
Madam president, there are two ways to commemorate the victims of the totalitarian regimes. One is as in the resolutions of this parliament to condemn them. And the other way is what we have seen in Dona Gradinam where the leadership of the Republic of Czepska and Serbia has misused Yasenovac to display hate and hatred towards Bosniaks and Croats. So this is an echo, of this propaganda that we have felt in the letter, from a colleague from the extreme right that we have just received today. He invited us to his event.
I believe that we should condemn this type of propaganda, and we should stick to the resolutions of the European Parliament on condemning any sort of totalitarian regime.
Speaker 293
Thank you very much, commissioner. Dear colleagues, protecting European companies' jobs and products must become a reality. We need to preserve more than 30 jobs in the EU, which directly depend on exports, as well as an industry that generates nearly 20% of the European GDP. There's additional pressure exerted by increased imports at dumping prices. We're talking about steel, the green industry, or chemical products.
Speaker 292
So we need measures to protect the European economy, as well as fair rules for the other players. The measures, imposed by the commission, antidumping, antisubsidies, prove that unfair practices have become the rule. There are also differences in cost generated by the EU environmental and social standards, increasing prices by up to 20 or 30%. Therefore, we need thermal controls, and we need policies of commercial protection in order to defend our interests.
Thank you very much. Next speaker.
Mélanie Disdier
Well, what we're seeing in Spain is extremely important with the Sanchez government. We're seeing Spain become one of the key ports for immigrants. So we're seeing hundreds of thousands of people have been regularized. This is such a high figure, and this has an impact far beyond Spain. It has an impact across Europe.
In the Schengen area, decisions taken in one country have an impact for all. We utterly reject this. This undermines all of us. Europe needs borders, and the free movement of people should be for European citizens, whilst our European borders are not closed. Now, we need to maintain the unity of Europe and avoid the immigration chaos.
We need to take back control. That's what we need to do now. A Europe without borders, without control of our borders, is Europe that doesn't protect.
Speaker 303
Thank you very much indeed. The next speaker, mister, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 276
When we were thinking that all the rules when negotiating the Mercosur agreements had been broken and nothing worse could happen, we found out that further irregularities took place. The division of the quota allocated to producers from South America was actually handed over to the side by Brazil and Argentina. And both the farmers and parliamentarians are surprised by this new modus operandi. Why was it introduced through the back door? Another thing that our farmers did not know about and are surprised are quotas that Southern American states enjoy under, let's say, Hilton agreement that gives them 50,000 tons, which doesn't add up to the quotas established under the Mercosur agreement, but these two quotas should be treated jointly.
Speaker 275
As a result, this agreement is highly harmful, and this is going to be a shock therapy that kicks in on May 1. And we had no chance to express our opinion because this was never voted. It's a true scandal that will go down in the history of the EU.
The next speaker is Mr. Maloui.
Ciaran Mullooly
The annual inflation rate in Ireland surged to 3.6% in March. Food prices there are 12% above the EU-27 average. And in the city of Galway, I've been talking to students and low-income families who are severely affected. A student-operated food bank at the University of Galway has been forced to turn away hundreds of students from its county every week as the cost of living crisis deepens. And Galway councilor Noel Thomas tells me families need urgent help in parts of the city to meet the escalating cost of fuel, food, and rent every week.
The European Commission of the Irish government has talked about an energy voucher scheme to support these families, but where is this chair? In parts of the West Side, Balibana, Nachnakarra, and Goa, pensioners and others are still waiting for a new initiative on home heating oil, where the price of cursing has almost doubled. So why is there a delay, I ask? Who do they want? Do they want the proud people of this city to beg for assistance in this wartime inflation crisis?
I say stop leaking the stories, and make them happen. For god's sake, get on with the family income support, and do it this week.
Thank you very much.
Miss Gallan?
Speaker 277
Thank you very much, President. The PP is so desperate to stay in power that it's allied itself with VOXX, and it has declared war on human rights. Talking about national priority is actually the basis for segregation, for defining who belongs to our society and who does not. This is a very slippery slope. You can't say that migrants who belong in Spain or certain groups of people, ethnicities don't belong, same as under Franco, people who thought differently weren't countenanced in Spain.
Speaker 280
Then you may as well say that you're behaving just as people did vis-à-vis the Jews under Nazism. We need to stop this them and us approach, this hatred of the other, and peddling lies and disinformation, totally in breach of every directive, including that which outlaws discrimination on the basis of ethnicity. We have got to ensure that this ethnic cleansing is stopped. Our country integrates migrants. It brings people into the economy.
Speaker 198
And as soon as we say that we want this to happen, then people just embark on a witch hunt against the prime minister. Thank you. The next speaker is Mr. Khan.
Thank.
Fernand Kartheiser
you. Corrective received at least €400,000 from the European Union, supposedly to fight disinformation. But what did corrective do with that? They used it to spread their own disinformation. The so-called Potsdam affair, the supposed secret meeting, was no more than a political campaign.
Their claim was that the AfD wanted to remove Germans who.
had a
Fernand Kartheiser
Migratory background is just wrong. This was damaging to people professionally, financially, and socially. We call for a stop to funding for corrective. They should repay all the funds they received, and they should pay compensation to the victims of this campaign. And I can promise you that sooner or later, we'll have a committee of inquiry that will look into that, look into every last penny they used for these leftist illegal so-called fact checks.
Fernand Kartheiser
Thank you, Mrs. Chairperson. The commission seeks to introduce age controls on social media under the pretense of protecting our children. Its real purpose, however, is the abolition of anonymity on the Internet, and the further extension of its already overreaching control and censorship mechanisms. In reality, the EU does not care about protecting minors. Its aim is to abolish free speech and privacy for everyone.
The commission is no longer a protector of democracy and fundamental rights. On the contrary, it has become one of the most committed detractors. I therefore call on the commission not only to abandon this app for verifying the age and identity of Internet users, but to accept that the education and guidance of minors is a matter for parents, not for Brussels bureaucrats. Thank you very much.
Daniel Buda
Thank you. The next speaker is Mr. Burra.
Thank you, Chair, dear colleagues. During the last ten months, the government by Ilya Bologian has offered Romania exactly what it needed: stability. It has reduced the deficit. It prevented the loss of billions of euros from European funds, and it has initiated essential reforms. Nevertheless, the social democrats, are in the government coalition, have abandoned this responsibility, whereas in Brussels, they were promising never ever to become allies with the extremists.
This decision is not only a treason of the coalition but of the European direction of Romania, because we are at the boundaries of war and an essential pillar on the eastern flank. Underlying political instability is not an internal game. It is a strategic risk for the entire European Union, a risk for investors, but the cost of this lack of responsibility will be paid by the enviable citizens. We cannot afford to take steps back. I tell you, Ilya Balajan is the only credible and responsible leader.
Romania needs stability. It needs responsibility. It needs leaders who do not leave the ship during the storm. Romania needs Illya Boljan. Thank you.
Marit Maij
Thank you, chair. An online rape academy. This is sick and inhumane. A global online rape academy with tens of millions of visitors, where many men share tips. Tips on how to drug women, tips on how to rape your own partner, on how to film it, even how to earn money with it.
This is sick. Let it sink in. And this is not about a few disturbed individuals. This is a system. It's a system that operates on our digital platforms, and it's a system that grows.
It's a system that is protected by men, by tech bros, who protect anonymity, who protect legal loopholes. But we have the tools to act: platform accountability, mandatory reporting, cross-border enforcement. Now we need the political will to act, because every day we delay, this system grows. Every day we delay, more women are targeted, violated, raped. The question is not whether we can do something about this.
Speaker 296
The question is whether we choose to do something about this. Let's choose women over tech bros. Thank you.
Thank.
Valérie Deloge
Thank you very much indeed. The next speaker is Miss George.
Ladies and gentlemen, technocrats don't care about people. The vast majority of French people reject the Mercosur agreement, but it has come into effect nonetheless. The majority of people say that farmers don't receive enough money, but you want to reduce the cap budget? Do you think that people think bureaucracy and rules are too burdensome? People are asking for support and coherence.
What do you say more for a more free trade and unfair competition. You're killing people's perspectives. The results are there to be seen. We're seeing the number of farmers dropping, farms closing down. Free people is a free population that has control over its own agriculture.
Does Europe still want its agriculture? I can't see it, but we need to
Nina Carberry
Ma'am president, ladies and gentlemen, the EU summit last week sent a lot of whirring signals, in particular to the countries of the Eastern flank. For those countries, security is not an abstract thing, but it's a very real challenge. Countries such as Poland are aware that NATO is the cornerstone of our security, and the American presence on our soil is a deterring factor. That's why I am surprised by statements made by certain politicians, including in my country, who criticize, for instance, the concept of the European strategic autonomy. This is a risk that Europe cannot afford.
We must strengthen our capacity, but we need to do it as part of NATO, not alongside NATO. Mutual assistance clause will not replace the Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. We mustn't weaken our continent in the long run. Europe is facing a choice between security and a tested partner and pipe dreams that might weaken our alliances. Thank you.
Thank you, Miss Carberry. Next.
Nina Carberry
Thank you, madam President. McDonald's, Domino's, Haribo, Oreo, Pepsi, Pringles. Who doesn't like a treat every now and then? But for children in Ireland, they see unhealthy food and drinks marketing roughly every 4 minutes online. Every four minutes, whether it's paid advertising on TikTok, influencer collaborations on Instagram, or mukbang videos on YouTube.
These ads for junk food capture a child's attention up to 4 or 5 times as long as regular ads. Of course, this is not a new issue. Since 2007, we've had a European framework in place to deal with ads targeting children, but it will be close to nearly 10 years since it has been last updated. Ten years where AI and algorithms have almost replaced TV and toys. With one in five children, Irish children, now presenting as overweight or obese, closing these loopholes is no longer optional.
The commission must address this blind spot in the upcoming revision of EU rules on video platforms on podcasting. Thank you.
Thank.
Speaker 288
President, thank you, president. PFAS forever chemicals are ticking time bombs, poisoning our soils, and our groundwater. They're a danger to the health of people in Europe. ECHA confirmed this a couple of months ago, and recommended bans on PFAS. All member states should re-appreciate this.
Speaker 289
The chemicals omnibus is a part of that, which is supposed to boost the competitiveness of our chemical sector, which is a good thing, because a lot of jobs depend on it. But we can't pit jobs against health and the environment. Health needs to be a priority. That's why we need a swift and strict ban on PFAS. Thank you.
Speaker 295
Thank you very much, president, colleagues. This seminar, Santa, we saw many issues of assaults and deaths among Christians. Also, on Palm Sunday, at least 27 people lost their lives. And this is not an isolated incident because all too many Christians lose their lives or are subjected to assault, and nobody even observes this, takes note of it, comments it, or anything. We need to be clear about this.
We need to be honest. This is absolute suffering, exploitation, and variance with everything our Christian culture stands for, with the provenance and heritage that it has, where we venerate worship. And it is something that we turn to in times of turbulence, where people of dialogue, of harmony, and people who wish to come together to build a path to a better, more harmonious future. Thank you.
Cristian Terheş
Thank you. The Georgian Christian nation suffered in March 2026 a profound and painful loss, the passing of its spiritual leader, his holiness and beatitude to the lie of the second Catholicos patriarch of all Georgia. In an area, in an era of trials and spiritual drought, he became the living embodiment of faith, courage, and paternal love. Becoming patriarch in 1977 during Soviet darkness, he furiously revived the Georgian church and lighted the flame of Christ in millions of Georgian hearts. A profound theologian and tireless shepherd, Elia the second defended the Georgian spiritual identity, language, and ancient traditions in time of struggle.
His wisdom guided the Georgian nation through independence and hardship alike, uniting all Georgians in prayer, action, and hope. His presence brought peace, and his words carried the power of Scripture. A member of the European Parliament, I evoke the member of Patriarch Elia the second here today so that his shining example of faith and courage will remain eternal here. May the Lord grant him eternal rest, and may the Georgian nation keep his eternal memory. Amen.
Thank you.
Johan Danielsson
The judgment of the court of justice that children should be defended against LGBTIQ ideology for their own benefit is null. It refers to the Hungarian law, but it serves as a precedence for the entire European. A human child is the most vulnerable minority. Therefore, they are protected by the binding convention on the rights of the child of the United Nations. And it says that the child benefit should be our guiding principle and should come first.
And parents have the priority in bringing up their children. The judgment by the court is in stark contrast with this convention, and it imposes left-wing ideology under the guise of false law. And the EU institutions are also gathering competencies that are not on them. And such justice should be absolved. We need to protect our children, and we need to return and give them back their safe childhood.
Thank you, Mr. Danielson.
Johan Danielsson
Madam thousand president, over people lose their lives in the workplace in workplace accidents. There are a huge number of Europeans who die in the workplace. It's totally unacceptable. We here have the possibility to reduce the number of these accidents, but we need to fight for a safer workplace. We need to understand that Europe for a hundred years has been a continent where workers have been looking for an improvement in their workplaces.
Now we're seeing an increase in the number of accidents once again. We need to react to it because if not, there'll be an increased number of accidents at the workplace, and we need to make sure that we don't just end up writing something down on a bit of paper. We need to actually make sure this has an impact in the workplace. We need to, and perhaps increase fines for our businesses.
And for president.
political.
Matthias Ecke
Change in Hungary has got to be evaluated with the proper parameters. You can't just look at election slogans. And so we need to have some actually concrete tests. It was absolutely illegal to extradite this gentleman, and this is something that should have been properly reviewed under the Finnish agreement and the Finnish government and the regime then. This would not have been possible.
It is therefore important that the rule of law comes to the fore again, and that the Hungarian government creates an environment where there is proper independent justice and the rule of law is complied with. But the German government needs to remain on the case. Mister Badafuil must resume the discussions which have been broken off with the Hungarian government and ensure that Amayate's illegal extradition is withdrawn. The rule of law is not an abstract principle. It's something which is very tangible and very real, and we make.
Andrew Katis.
Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis
Thank you so much. Sorry, because of translation. Colleagues, we have now all seen the very important road map on one Europe, one market. We absolutely need to strengthen the single market and create a resilient, economically secure Europe that is able to respond to new world realities. Increasing our competitiveness is a huge part of it, but we cannot see competitiveness as a narrow, sector-specific issue.
We are now working on the biotech act, which is part of this competitive agenda, but it has to become much more than just a tool to boost European manufacturing. We have to think about the people first, about the patients battling rare diseases, the participants of clinical trials, and the people waiting for more affordable generic or biosimilars, or personalized treatment. We have to increase the ability of member states to work in close cooperation so that no patient is left behind. We have to enable our agencies, our scientists, our state-of-the-art technology rallies to connect into a wide pan-European ecosystem that would align them to act. The 28 regime for multi-country clinical trials is vital.
We have to work together to ensure this is set in the regulation and to secure the necessary financing. We cannot afford to think small.
Speaker 198
Thank you, Mr. Andrew Cates. That brings us to the end of the one-minute speeches. The next session will be tomorrow at 9:00. The agenda has been published and is available on the website of the European Parliament. The minutes of this session will be available to you tomorrow, first thing in the afternoon, for approval.
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