Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Right-wing parties like to present themselves as the voice of the little people: against the lofty bureaucrats in Brussels and the hip big city chess. But if the little people themselves are to have a voice, if workers are to be involved in the huge transformation decisions of the economy that are currently in front of us, then suddenly we hear completely different sounds. Many workers still have no or limited opportunity to really influence company decisions. At the same time, we have to take everyone with us, especially in phases of upheaval, as we do now. To this end, it is crucial to strengthen democracy at work across the EU. Instead of telling people the fairy tale that just everything stays the way it is right now, they need to be better involved. Comprehensive information, consultation and codecision rights – in works councils and management bodies. We are facing massive upheavals in the way we work and produce. Digitization processes, but also climate change, will drastically change our society and the world of work. And: No, climate protection and good, reliable jobs are of course not incompatible, quite the contrary. The transformation towards a sustainable economy creates new jobs, especially in the industrial sector. But: Yes, this can only be done with change and restructuring. And this is exactly what workers need to be fully involved in. And the European Union can and must play a role in this and create frameworks, especially when it comes to cross-border co-determination. And last, but not least: Of course, this should involve all workers, not just half of them. This is precisely why we advocated gender parity in this report, because women deserve half the power in politics, but of course also in the world of work. I would like to thank the rapporteur for the good cooperation. Commissioner, we can do a lot for a more social Europe, for democracy and participation in the workplace: ‘let's do this“.

Mr President, dear Prime Minister, dear colleagues, dear Commission President. Mr Morawiecki, despite what you have been saying today, I must admit that I have to ask myself the question after what happened in Poland in the last weeks and months, whether on 7 October, when this ruling was proclaimed by the Constitutional Tribunal, you actually did not secretly open a bottle of champagne together with Vladimir Putin. Because seriously, when I look at the situation, political vision and political agenda, I see a lot of similarities between Putin and what your government is doing. What you are trying to do is to convert Poland into an authoritarian state with weak democratic institutions and weak enforcement of fundamental rights of its citizens. And you seem to be sharing another political aim with Vladimir Putin. And that is a weak and disunited European Union. But let me break it to you, let me break it to you. The majority of the Polish citizens disagrees with you. The majority of the Polish citizens – and they have shown that beautifully last weekend – they want to live in a strong Poland, in a strong European Union based on rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy. And we salute these people in Poland. And it shouldn’t be here in the European Parliament that this is addressed to you. It should be you, Mr Prime Minister, who speaks to your citizens, who speaks to your judges – some of them I hear on the tribune today – to your prosecutors, to your civil society organisations, speak to them and listen to them. They want to live in a country based on rule of law, with an independence of the judiciary, with separation of powers and with fundamental rights. And I must say I find it unbearably painful sometimes to say so many obvious things again and again in these debates. But yes, obviously, Polish citizens are EU citizens and they are protected by EU law, and it is not a nice-to-have luxury for the European Commission to protect their rights. It is the duty of the European Commission to protect their rights. And lastly, I would like to say one thing, because I think this has been confused a lot in this debate. There is no conflict. There is no disagreement between the Polish Constitution and the EU treaties on the subject matter that we are debating, on rule of law and separation of power or the independence of the judiciary. They are completely in line there. So please, Mr Prime Minister, bring Poland back on a path to rule of law, implement the ECJ rulings as demanded and do what your citizens demand you to do: bring Poland back really to the heart of Europe.

Mr President, a couple of years ago, I watched a documentary, it’s called ‘Trapped’, and actually, I recommend you watch it too. It’s about the situation of access to abortion in the US, and this was from before these kind of laws were passed. And there is one scene that I will never forget, it is a healthcare worker describing the situation, when a woman is calling the abortion clinic that she’s working in. And this woman says: I’m pregnant. Nobody can know. I cannot come to the clinic right now, it’s too far away. I don’t have enough money, but I can tell you what I have in my kitchen cabinet. And then can you help me to perform an abortion over the phone? This situation is something that we will see happen again if we do not make sure that there is access to abortion across the board. This law in Texas, and none of the crazy laws that have been passed over the last years, will actually prevent abortions from happening; what these laws prevent from happening are safe and legal abortion. And this is why we have to make clear that laws like this are called what they are: they are barbaric, and they are putting women in exactly these situations. And some of you might say, well, OK, this is happening far away, this is happening in the US, they don’t have their religious fundamentalists under control. Well, look at the situation in Europe. Look at what has happened over the last years. We have exactly the same problems here. So, we need to have global solidarity in defence of women’s rights, in defence of sexual and reproductive rights – our bodies, our rights – everywhere in the world.

Mr President, what is the most powerful weapon that dictators and autocrats have? It is not the tear gas they use or the water cannons, or even the machine guns of their brutal police forces. It is oblivion. People like Lukashenko want us to stop caring. They want us after months and months and months to turn a blind eye, to look away and not look at what is happening in Belarus anymore. Maria Kolesnikova was illegally detained more than a year ago. Last month, she was illegally convicted, once again, to 11 years in prison. Maria is 39 years old. If this madness is not going to be stopped, she’s going to be 50 by the time that this sentence is over, and even if our message today cannot reach her directly right now, as she is in prison, let us make sure that it’s going to reach Lukashenko. This Parliament will not stop caring. This Parliament is not going to look away, and this Parliament is not going to forget what has happened in Belarus. We will continue to stand in solidarity with the democratic opposition in Belarus.

Madam President, Every day a man in Germany tries to kill his partner or ex-partner. Every third day it happens. Every third day a femicide takes place in Germany alone. These are not family dramas or even murders for love. These are brutal patriarchal crimes that do not fall from the sky but thrive in a society where women are still subjected to constant sexism and violence. I was elected to this Parliament seven years ago, and I can no longer count how many times I have heard since then: Yes, violence against women is bad, but it is not the task of the European Union to take action against it. The time of excuses just has to be over. If you want equality, if you really take the promise of equality of the European Union seriously, you know very well: Equal rights are pure illusion, as long as we do not stop this conflagration of violence against women. And for that, we need the full implementation of the Istanbul Convention, an EU directive against gender-based violence. And yes, we finally need governments in the Member States that take this problem seriously and address it in concrete terms.

Madam President, Igor Tuleya, Ewa Wrzosek,  Beata Morawiec: these are just three of the many people who have been targeted by the Polish Government over the past years. They were targeted because they were trying to defend rule of law, democracy, media freedom and fundamental rights. They were targeted because they were trying to defend EU values, EU law and everything that the EU stands for. They very clearly show that the rule of law, the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary are not abstract concepts. Behind these concepts there are stories of people. They have names, they have faces and their life realities are at stake here as well. These people were in the forefront of the struggle for the rule of law. They stood up to defend EU values in Poland and, when they became targets, they waited for a determined response from the European Union. They waited and they waited some more. They were dragged in front of unlawful courts. They were the targets of smear campaigns, of hate and of threats. After waiting and waiting and waiting, finally – finally – the Commission seems to have changed its mind and is ready for more decisive action right now. From now on, the stories of the people who stood up for EU values, their names and their struggles, should be at the centre of the EU’s response because this is not an abstract battle of lawyers. The struggle for rule of law matters in every single citizen’s life, and the people who defended our rights and our freedoms deserve not only our solidarity, they deserve our praise and our protection.

Mr President, Minister, dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, when I wake up next to my girlfriend in the morning and I’m filled with happiness and gratitude, I sometimes ask myself, how can you hate that the two of us love each other? When I see beautiful pictures from gay weddings I ask myself, how can you hate this kind of joy? And when I see a young trans person living a life as their true, authentic self, I ask myself, how can you hate someone just for wanting to be who they are? In Europe today we are faced with a choice, a choice between a Europe of freedom, of equality and diversity, where I can love and care for my girlfriend, where two men can get married and where a young trans woman can live her life without being afraid of violence or discrimination. And a Europe of hatred and oppression, driven by Orbán and Kaczyński and other people on this continent, where governments sponsor homophobic campaigns to cover up their systemic corruption, where our community is used as a distraction from the blatant failures of government politics. Now some of you might say, well, but this is only affecting a small part of the population because you are after all only a minority. But actually this is not true. It affects all of us. All of our freedoms are at stake here. And they might attack us first and in the most aggressive way but in the end this is about freedom of expression for all of us. This is about the fundamental rights of all of us, and this is about democratic principles for all of us. And between a Europe of freedom and a Europe of hatred and oppression, the choice is very clear. We choose freedom, we choose equality, we choose democracy. And we choose a European Commission that will stand up for this freedom, for the freedom of trans people in Hungary, for the freedom of judges in Poland, for the freedom of everyone in the European Union to love who they want to love and to be who they are. (Applause)

Mr President, Parliament has again and again been pretty clear. First of all, the development of these guidelines for the regulation is actually not necessary as it is sufficiently clear as it stands. Secondly, the guidelines presented by the Commission unfortunately have little, or very little, additional value to clarification. Thirdly – and I must say this, Commissioner – suspicion is actually high that the Commission is fully aware of this, but presented these guidelines anyway to buy some time. Commissioner, I must say that I think we really need to end these theatre plays. We don’t need more delaying tactics, and we don’t need statements or Commissioners being very concerned about the situation of the rule of law in the European Union. We need action, and it is not me saying it. Check the committee votes. Apart from the far right in this Parliament, all groups agree. So, Commissioner, take this as a strong appeal. I can only support my colleagues in saying, come back from the summer break with a strong case on the basis of this regulation.