Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, it is clear that the climate changes and changes our territories and our lives. In Spain alone, in 2022, the average number of fires increased fourfold. And, in the Mediterranean ecoregion, the fire season grew by 54%. This year we are facing a drought that is the worst for at least five hundred years. The problem is not conjunctural – it has already been said here – and its impact is uneven. It is modulated according to geographical, economic and social criteria. Some are more affected than others. Our agricultural sector is desolate. That is why, together with climate change mitigation measures, a solidarity policy and a strategy against desertification must be articulated, as has also been said here. We need to go beyond the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism and strengthen cohesion policy as a solidarity mechanism between regions. The role of public authorities in the protection of natural resources is essential and the right to water must be guaranteed as a common good, not as a commodity. Without water there is no possible existence on this planet. Surprisingly, we are not able to agree on such simple evidence.

Madam President, cereal prices are rising and fuel, transport and logistics costs are rising. In addition, there are those who take advantage of and speculate on agricultural and food products, precisely because markets allow this type of behavior. This severely affects farmers and families with lower incomes in Europe, but also whole countries, which may end up facing famine situations. We need to take immediate steps to alleviate this situation and curb the catastrophic effects that the reduction of Ukrainian exports is having. But let us not forget that this situation is, above all, the result of an unsustainable and dependent production model that we should change. We need to ensure food sovereignty, put an end to speculation, protect small-scale family farming, which produces around 80% of food globally, promote decent working conditions in the countryside and short supply chains, and put an end to business concentration in the food sector, which impoverishes us. We are here to guarantee rights and the right to food must now – it should be now – be our priority.

–Mr President, Commissioner, we are all needy and unfinished beings, we have all been children and hopefully we will all be old. It is time to assume that we owe a debt of bond to those who care for us and have cared for us. A debt that is not only material, but also affective, and of which women are fundamentally creditors. In Europe, more than 7.5 million women have left the labour market to care for 450 000 men and, for caring, almost 9 million women work part-time, compared to 560 000 men. Then we complain about the lack of empathy that many men exhibit: To care and to love is learned by caring and wanting. I have been advocating for years for a European care pact and I am happy that this report is moving towards a model in which men and institutions take their rightful place. We have to provide quality services that guarantee the well-being and autonomy of those who need them. But that cannot be achieved if care is not valued and paid for what it is worth. Women no longer receive €287 billion per year for unpaid care. Let's not forget: To care and to love is learned by caring and wanting.

The right to abortion is free when it can be exercised, and it cannot be exercised in a lot of public hospitals because, I insist, in most of them or in many of them conscientious objections are practiced that are clearly illegal, as is known and has been discovered for a long time, so that most of these women have to be referred to private centers where they have to pay for abortion.

I am not aware that these women receive funding for abortions; rather they have difficulty aborting, as we already know; especially in public health, because many doctors object, without having the right to object any health institution in its entirety. Many of them have to travel many kilometres from one place to another in order to be able to have an abortion – something that is recognised as their right – so that they do not receive funding to have an abortion, rather they have difficulties. And of course, I agree that women who want to have children should be helped to have them: That is what social policies are for, which oftentimes your party - as you know, Mrs De la Pisa Carrión - puts in difficulties, because in fact it is you who cut social policies in the Community of Madrid and elsewhere.

Madam President, 86 million women may see their right to abortion limited in the United States: 26 states threaten delusional "fetal heartbeat" laws and some already provide for succulent stimuli for whistleblowers and prison sanctions for those who fail to comply; In these states there will be no funding to guarantee sexual and reproductive rights, because the Supreme Court ruling must be joined by the global gag law and the Helms amendment, so poverty will be an aggravating factor. A global war is being waged against women and "sicariate" is, in many cases, a judiciary out of control or subject to the directives of authoritarian governments. Yesterday it was Poland; today, the United States; Tomorrow, Spain. Clearly, if we don't armour ourselves, The Handmaid's Tale It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. We need to incorporate the right to abortion into our constitutions, as has been done in Chile, and also into the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in order to clearly distinguish it from the right to health. Feminists are the great defenders of life, but not of the slave and submissive life that the lords and ladies of misogyny and hatred want to ascribe to us. Listen to the women who have been forced to bear children of their rapists. They are interested in children, but only before they are born. Know that no woman will be yours. (She agreed to respond to an intervention under the "blue card" procedure)

Mr President, the European Parliament is the only institution of the European Union whose members are directly elected. However, the areas in which the right of initiative can be exercised are extremely limited and show an imbalance between the bodies that needs to be corrected. The Council refuses to negotiate the right of inquiry, has greater legislative capacity – despite representing national interests and not those of the Union as a whole – and often blocks parliamentary progress. Those who want to return to the nation state should take note of this detail. The truth is that Parliament is the European body by definition, because that is where the body and speaker of the citizenry resides. And it is, in addition, the most deliberative space and today the most progressive. It would deserve to have direct and real legislative capacity. States have already been overtaken by the measure of things themselves. The challenges that await us require decentralization and federalism, different coordinated political bodies among which decision-making powers are distributed. Today, more than ever, the capillarity, plurality and nuanced voice of the European Parliament is imperative.

Mr President, Commissioner, two hundred thousand comfort women or comfort women were turned into sex slaves by the Japanese army before and during World War II. Many were killed, others committed suicide and the survivors were stigmatized. In the former Yugoslavia, systematic rape and forced pregnancies were used as a form of ethnic cleansing. The genocide against the Yazidi community at the hands of the so-called Islamic State resulted in thousands of women and girls being abducted, enslaved, tortured, raped and killed. Abductions of school-age girls by armed groups, early marriages and early pregnancies are common in Nigeria. Rape, sexual slavery, mutilation and other forms of torture are currency in the armed conflict in Western Tigrah in Ethiopia. Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, in all wars, the women's body is a battlefield, and Ukraine is not and will not be an exception. Also there women and girls are spoils of war and rape is a strategy of terror and torture that will leave indelible traces. Those fleeing Ukraine, 90% women and children, face similar risks in transit and destination areas, some of which do not respect sexual and reproductive rights. Displaced women are also particularly vulnerable, because in most cases they sustain life and care for those who are more vulnerable than them. Today we are in time to stop the relentless wheel of history. Let's start hosting resources. Let's offer study and employment opportunities to those seeking refuge. Let's work with girls who are less likely to have access to education and are exposed to sexual violence, human trafficking and trafficking. Let us provide women with complaint mechanisms when they are subjected to violence, good physical, psychological, sexual and reproductive health services, emergency contraceptive methods and adequate care in case of abortion. Let us take care of the victims and let us not forget the perpetrators, because the sexual crimes that have been perpetrated in Ukraine are war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, and, as such, they must be prosecuted and punished.

Madam President, we are experiencing moments of uncertainty, we have been facing the pandemic for two years and we have managed to make social Europe stronger, but the monstrosity of war has caused the ghosts of economic austerity and the far-right nightmare of safe enclaves (religion, the nation state and the conventional family) to return. Europe is again torn between the politics of hope and the politics of fear; between a bright morning in which we all fit and the atavisms that always represent the future as a threat. Ours cannot be the Europe of merchants or the fear of their god, but the Europe of care, democracy and sustainability of life. That is why it is so important that we amend the treaties: to strengthen the European Social Pillar, to constitutionalise feminist and environmental demands, to articulate real participatory mechanisms, to avoid vetoes in the Council and to give Parliament the legislative initiative it deserves. Because this is where citizens sit. Never again the goods in front of people. Never again the few in front of the many. Not a government invalidating the decisions of others. It is the moment of social, feminist, democratic and federal Europe.

Mr President, the Roma community is discriminated against in Europe and has been criminalised since time immemorial. Now, with the brutality of the war, it seems that, far from being tempered, that criminalization is hardened and aggravated: In Ukraine, Roma are the target of military groups and militia on both sides of the conflict, and we know that human losses have been recorded, above all, in regions where different ethnic groups coexist. In Poland, Moldova or Slovakia there is a selective solidarity that is hierarchical based on racist prejudices and stereotypes and that is openly anti-Gypsy: Europe's silence in the face of such a violation of the right to asylum and refuge is surprising. It must be assumed that Roma, many of whom may be undocumented in Ukraine, face specific vulnerabilities, and we must step up their protection. It is in emergency situations that we need to demonstrate our true commitment to international and EU law.

Madam President, the rule of law is systematically violated in Poland and Hungary. We've been denouncing him for years. Infringement proceedings were launched in 2017 and 2018 for lack of judicial independence and, in the case of Hungary, for strangling the press. But we cannot suspend their right to vote in the Council unless they themselves agree, because the sacrosanct rule of unanimity applies. We cheat the loner and that detracts from our credibility. Orbán, an autocrat, ultra-conservative populist and friend of Putin, has just won another election against the Brussels bureaucrats, he said. It is only right that Brussels should ensure today that it does not use everyone's funds in its particular fight against human rights. That is why it is so important that, although late, the Commission finally activates the cross-compliance mechanism. While we were thinking about it, LGTBIQ people, women and migrants have been persecuted, independent media have disappeared and the separation of powers has been canceled. The selective reception of Ukrainian refugees cannot now be a bargaining chip or serve to whitewash their repressive policies. As you can see, every minute lost has had its consequences. Let's take note.

Madam President, I have a 12-year-old daughter. She could have been one of those demonstrating in Afghanistan to go to school. One of the beaten, arrested or disappeared. He still doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up, but he cultivates his dreams and imagines endless possible worlds. There is nothing more sadistic than controlling women by amputating their futures from childhood; robbing them of tomorrow to nullify their personality and enslave them. Before the return of the Taliban regime, 88,000 women were studying at university. A significant percentage of them also worked and held public office. Today, most have not been able to return to their jobs and we do not know if they will one day. The country is impoverished by shredding the talent of women, but the drive to dominate them is such that 85% of men still consider that they should not work. They don't mind being poorer if that assures them of their particular labor and sexual servitude. That is why they do not want girls to go to school, because that is where they begin to build themselves as women in a world without owners.

Madam President, Commissioner, exceptional measures for exceptional situations. The primary sector has been loss-making for years and is now facing escalating prices for fuel, electricity and fertilisers. An escalation that is already translating into unemployment, shortages and food crisis. It was necessary to throw a rope to grab without losing the north and that was the initial idea of this resolution until the EPP has tried to boycott it at the last moment. It seems that he forgets that this situation is not only the product of a war, but of an unsustainable and dependent productive model. Energy, structural and endemic dependence; dependence on the global market and dependence on chemicals to produce food because we have devastated our territories. If we had not arrived late to diagnoses and solutions, we would not be so vulnerable nor would we be at the mercy of the whims of a satrap. So, watch out, because it's not about erasing the tracks, it's about learning the lesson. The Farm to Fork Strategy is not a mistake that we are going to amend; The mistake has been not having implemented it much earlier. Today we have to be with farmers, ranchers and fishermen. But what is urgent, which is ─ and very much so ─ is not incompatible with what is important.

Mr President, in any revision of the legal framework on safety and health at work, it must be borne in mind that women workers are largely excluded. That is why I want to put forward two very simple proposals. First, we must give a firm response to workplace harassment, a phenomenon that, far from being circumstantial, illustrates a structural problem of our workplaces, fueled by tolerance, the imbalance in power relations, the absence of safe spaces and, above all, the lack of prevention policies and gender parity. It is time to overcome the blockade on the ratification of ILO Convention 190. Secondly, on teleworking, which, far from contributing to conciliation, has added new burdens on women's backs, aggravating gender stereotypes, worsening their double and triple working hours and hindering their professional and salary development. So it is very important, in line with the measures taken in countries like Spain, that we have a directive that sets minimum standards for teleworking and also takes into account the specific challenges faced by women.

Madam President, if one good thing has brought the dramatic exceptionalism that we have been experiencing for two years now, it is that it has opened a window of opportunity for the development of policies not aligned with the ordoliberal orthodoxy that has hitherto dominated the economic governance framework of the European Union. This is well illustrated by the very suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact. That is why I believe it is essential for this Parliament to take advantage of this small space that has been opened up to defend a radical transformation of the European Semester and the rules of economic governance, to leave behind a mechanism that led to the degradation of the conditions of existence of the majority of the working population and the exponential increase in social inequality. Faced with this image, which still remains in our retina, it is a question of defending the incorporation of greater social considerations that bring it closer to equitable and egalitarian parameters, in line with the democratic expectations of citizens. If we fail to do so, we will have missed a golden opportunity to transform an instrument that can once again be used as a mechanism for disciplining our societies and straining our democracies.

Mr President, today is 8 March and we have to stop and think, once again, about the challenges facing women: ending sexist violence, guaranteeing sexual and reproductive rights, promoting women's leadership and supporting gender-responsive humanitarian action, for example. And we will work on it, even if the far-right forces, who also sit in this Parliament, are determined to prevent it. I say this because the Action Plan, of which we are reporting today, has been vetoed by four governments in the Council, who claim to reject the term 'gender': centuries of feminist reflection and struggle ventilated at a stroke. Of course, they'll have us in front of them. They will not succeed in imposing on us their framework of nonsense or their regressions. We will not back down in the fight for gender equality. We will move forward in an intersectional approach that is transformative and articulate a constructive and forward-looking agenda that strengthens women's representation. We will do it today for Ukrainian women and for all those who fight for peace in the world, women who are spoils of war, today more than ever. Feminists will continue to move forward with strong will and determination to get women to live the lives they want and deserve to live. Therefore, we demand effective resources, professionals trained in a gender perspective and a budget that allows us to plan our objectives and our actions, carry out concrete actions and evaluate their impact. The next 8M we do not want to continue reading that in Europe women walk at the pace of a turtle or that we will have to wait sixty years to inhabit a world of equals.

Mr President, for years now, gender mainstreaming has ceased to be a novel tool for promoting equality between women and men. The World Conference on Women, held in Nairobi in 1985, called for its implementation and, ten years later, the Platform for Action adopted in Beijing adopted it as a strategy to combat without palliation the multiple and intersectional discrimination suffered by women. Today we know the possibilities it offers, but we also know that gender mainstreaming can be left in nothing if it is applied in a fragmented and partial way, if there is no real commitment and it is applied mechanically. In a time of crisis and uncertainty such as the one we are living in, in which war adds more imbalance to the situation generated by the pandemic and structural inequalities, it is more necessary than ever to provide content and value gender mainstreaming. Today the normality of a warmongering logic that increases military spending and reduces social spending could be imposed, and in that framework it will be women who suffer the most. It is time to recognise diversity, the redistribution of opportunities, power and resources and to focus on the equal representation of women and men – which is already at stake. This commitment to equality would also reduce sexist violence, which is nothing but a brutal manifestation of discrimination and oppression. This Parliament is not only an employer of hundreds of workers, who must be guaranteed equal employment, but it is also a mirror in which governments across Europe look at each other on a daily basis. And we must set an example.

Mr President, Commissioner, that workers must be protected against diseases and, in particular, against occupational diseases, is a right recognised in the very Constitution of the International Labour Organisation. I would like to draw particular attention to women, because they have been the great neglected ones in terms of the prevention of occupational risks. The report we are debating today has made significant progress in this area by including reprotoxic substances in the directive. A fundamental achievement, from a gender perspective, because exposure to these substances occurs in highly feminized sectors, such as cleaning and nursing, and because it particularly affects the reproductive health of women. The exposure also occurs in other sectors, perhaps not so feminized, but where women are in a situation of special vulnerability, such as the temporary workers who work in the field. This report is a step forward for women, healthcare workers, workers in industry, thousands of employees who see their labour rights and their right to health strengthened, because no one – it has already been said here – has to get sick or die to make a living working.

Mr President, Commissioner, tackling the climate crisis from an eco-feminist approach should be a priority at the next session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Women suffer the most from the effects of the climate emergency for several reasons: they are the world’s leading food producers, although they own less land than men and, when they own it, their holdings are smaller; have less access to water and basic rights such as housing and health; are poorer, because they spend more time on unpaid care and have worse working conditions; and in many parts of the world they are prevented from reaching spaces of power and making decisions. However, paradoxically, it is women who are called to lead the ecological transition we need, for their knowledge, for their learning and for the skills they have developed taking care of the commons and the knot of human relationships that are around them. Women maintain the links between people, and between them and the land, fix population to the territory and ensure its conservation. They know that we depend on each other as much as on the material and energetic resources that allow us to sustain life. The culture of care is that of women and is the only one that guarantees our survival, because the environmental collapse we are experiencing is also that of the values that have caused it: domination, plunder and unlimited growth. Without women, there is no sustainable life on this planet. Let's learn from them.

Madam President, Commissioner. It is clear that the centrality of animal welfare on which the Farm to Fork strategy bets, for example, responds to an ethical question, but not only. While animals are endowed with the capacity to suffer, we have some duties contracted with them, the most basic of which is not to torture them. That an animal is not a stone, as Jeremy Bentham said more than two centuries ago. But animal abuse is also associated with the contamination of aquifers and land, the proliferation of diseases, and the retreat and abandonment of the countryside. That is, we are not only talking about animal welfare but also about local farmers impoverished by the unfair competition of macro farms and people displaced by the garbage they generate. The implementation report we are debating today is very condescending to the plundering of agro-industry and very uncritical of its persistent violations of European regulations. And we want to support extensive and family livestock, fix population to the territory and favor rural development. Without animal welfare there is no change in the production model, nor in the food system.

Madam President, more than 90% of abortions performed in Spain since 2010 have been referred to private clinics, largely due to the abusive use of conscientious objection. A few days ago, an ultra-Catholic association placed advertisements in several Spanish cities encouraging prayers in front of abortion clinics, that is, making a public appeal to harass women who come to these centers to terminate their pregnancy. Historically, medicine has overlooked many female ailments associated with our sexual activity and reproductive capacity, because the studies were carried out by male scientists on male patients, extrapolating the conclusions to women without taking into account biological differences. These are just three examples of how our sexual and reproductive rights are still not guaranteed, and that lack of protection affects our health and our autonomy. And when they are guaranteed, they are often not accessible because of lack of public resources and sex-affective education, or because some want to sanctify their lives at the cost of ruining ours. Although this Parliament has said that restricting the right to abortion is a form of gender-based violence and a violation of the human rights of women and girls, anti-feminist and anti-choice discourses are increasingly present in the European institutions. This week we heard Roberta Metsola engage with the majority positions in this House and Emmanuel Macron call for abortion to be included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. I just hope these words turn into deeds. I finish and add: Sexual and reproductive rights are human rights and not just health services. That is why they fall within the competence of the European Union.

Mr President, one in three adult European women has experienced physical or sexual violence and 55% have been subjected to some form of harassment. Not only do women and girls suffer from it, but they represent 90% of victims of sexual harassment and this form of sexist violence limits life and violates women's rights. That 75% of women in skilled professions have been sexually harassed explains, among other things, glass ceilings and gender gaps in positions of power and decision-making. The first step to combat harassment is to make it visible, as shown by the thousands of women who joined the "Me Too" and, later, we must act, without victimizing, offering protection and support to those who suffer it. It is important to remember that in sexist violence there is no profile of victim or victimizer, and that it happens in all places, including in the parliamentary context: Sexism, harassment and violence against women working in parliaments across Europe are widespread and those taking positions on equality and gender-based violence suffer particularly from it. Very few victims report it. Although some parliaments have complaints procedures or have conducted internal investigations in the wake of the Me Too, most are manifestly insufficient. The European Parliament is no exception. The resolution we voted on today is the third since 2017, when victims began telling their stories. Some insufficient measures have been taken and we therefore call for increased efforts to prevent sexual harassment, for example through mandatory training, protection of whistleblowers, victims and witnesses from victimisation or retaliation, professional mechanisms aimed at supporting and assisting victims of sexual harassment, improvements in the composition of committees dealing with complaints of harassment or an independent assessment of current measures. We are particularly concerned that victims of sexual harassment are often people in the most vulnerable positions in Parliament, including young professionals, trainees, parliamentary assistants and contract agents. We ask for nothing but zero tolerance for harassment and maximum commitment from both Parliament and the other institutions of the European Union. And yet I do not want to overlook the fact that the European People's Party has tabled an amendment to try to postpone a request as simple as it is effective: the mandatory nature of anti-harassment training. It shows how little she cares about the rights of the women who work in this Parliament, her own colleagues. I don't even want to imagine how little they care about those outside.

Madam President, it seems that the European Parliament is in Warsaw, because we have already lost count of the debates that have taken place in this House on Poland. A few weeks ago, the Polish Constitutional Court declared that part of the European Convention on Human Rights was incompatible with the Polish Constitution. It seems that this was his response to the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights questioning the legality of his appointment. Gentlemen robed of supposed high alcurnia, muddy in the children's game "where they take them". Playing with the rights that underpin the political culture of the European Union: the culture of rights, not that of Christianity. Now, the Polish Government, after de facto prohibiting abortion, surprises us with a legal exercise proper to the Holy Inquisition: a mandatory register of pregnancies and abortions to monitor women. What's next? Legislate on the right to pernada? It is clear that they are determined to boycott EU law and to use their citizens as human shields to keep their particular pulse against the 21st century.

Madam President, I do not know if many of you will have noticed the message on the front page of all the reports we adopted in the European Parliament: "United in diversity". Every time I stumble upon this phrase is, especially when we are working on some report on the backsliding of women's rights or on the persecution by some governments of LGTBIQ people, I say to myself that perhaps we should carve it in stone all over the Union as the Roman landmarks that marked the roads. The Commission's Guide to Inclusive Language simply translated into official language a diversity that already exists in the European Union. That we have not always had words to describe it does not mean that it has not been since the beginning of time like this. Those who have called for the withdrawal of this Guide with the crude excuse that it canceled Christmas are not waging a war against inclusive language: They are waging a war against reality and against life. Just ask the Commissioner, who unfortunately is not in this debate today, to be more ambitious in the measures she proposes to fight for equality. But today I want to send you my support and tell you not to be intimidated by the far right and its hoax makers. From here I recommend the Guide to all people who are dedicated to communication, education and politics, and to anyone who simply wants to use the most appropriate words to describe and understand the world in which he lives. Happy holidays.

Madam President, according to EIGE, the Union has 60 years to achieve equality. Progress remains slow; have stagnated or even receded in certain regions and countries. In the area of sexist violence, obstacles continue and, with them, difficulties in prosecuting crimes and compensating victims. Ratification of the Istanbul Convention remains stalled and some threaten to withdraw. I hope that the Commission's proposal for a directive will be truly ambitious. At the same time, sexual and reproductive rights have been threatened in countries like Poland or Hungary, while we give lukewarm responses to the far-right's anti-feminist advance. Wage and pension gaps continue to widen and thus contribute to the feminisation of poverty, including energy poverty. Women have more unpaid, underpaid and undervalued jobs. So we need the minimum wage and pay transparency directives to be adopted as soon as possible. Almost eight million women between the ages of 20 and 64 are directly out of the labour market because they are engaged in caring, compared to half a million men. And those who care within the market do so in precarious conditions. There is an urgent need to close the care gap and I hope that the Care Strategy will be up to par. Now that the crisis has left us worse off, I also hope that recovery measures, the digital and green transitions will take women into account. What I don't want is to be sitting here next year waiting for exactly the same things.