Speeches

The next item is a short presentation of the report by Tomislav Sokol on eGovernment accelerating digital public services that support the functioning of the single market (2022/2036(INI)) (A9-0065/2023).

The next item is a short presentation of the report by Loránt Vincze on the institutional relations between the EU and the Council of Europe (2022/2137(INI) (A9—0056/2023).

The Renew Europe Group has notified the President of a decision relating to changes to appointments within a committee. This decision will be set out in the minutes of today’s sitting and take effect on the date of this announcement.

Mr President, the principle of equal pay for equal work has been enshrined in our Treaties since 1957. And this is not an invention (although we often hear from the anti—gender ideologists on the right that this is an idea from feminists); this is in our Treaty and we are fighting for a union of equality and you are defending patriarchy. That’s the difference. In 2012, we had recommendations. The Commission came up with recommendations. Some countries followed these recommendations and the gender pay gap closed in these countries. This is again an example that often recommendations are not enough. We need legislation and I’m happy that we got this legislation today. For the S&D Group, it was very important that this directive work for all women: women in small companies and in bigger companies. Unfortunately, the threshold is now companies of 100 who have to report annually. But we were able to bring it down from 250 to 100, and we were all able together to strengthen the individual rights of workers in this directive, which is very important. So this directive now works for all women. Remember, it was the women during COVID who brought us through tough times: the women in the supermarkets, the women in the hospitals who worked very hard and who made the whole society function. So I’m very happy also that these individual rights are much strengthened. Trade union rights are strengthened also. And we have the shift of the burden of proof on pay—related issues. The burden of proof will shift from the worker to the employer. I’m very proud also on the gender—inclusive language which we put in there. This directive works for women and men in all their diversity. We are out of this binary view. We are in a linear view. There is a diversity of men; there is a diversity of women. This has been stated by rulings from the ECJ and therefore it’s good that this is a modern legislation. Thank you very much to the two young feminist rapporteurs, Samira and Kira. And I’m proud as an old male feminist also to have been participating in this. I want to thank also my good cooperation with Evelyn Regner in the S&D team. Our team was fantastic too, so we did great teamwork together and we did something for the women in our European Union.

Mr President, dear Commissioner Dalli, dear colleagues, children of same-sex parents and children growing up in rainbow families, they deserve to fully enjoy the same rights as their peers from opposite-sex parents. And this in all 27 Member States, and this is why it’s also a European affair. For us Socialists and Democrats, the best interests of children is always a primary consideration and priority, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. And the best interest of the child is not only enshrined in the UN Convention, but it’s also enshrined in many constitutions of our Member States, and also the Italian Constitution. I was surprised to hear Ms Mussolini saying that she’s in favour of the regulation for mutual recognition of parenthood. But why did her party colleagues in Italy in the Senate vote a resolution to veto this European Union regulation? This is facts what happened in Italy. And there we see this shift of Italy shifting towards those countries who organise state-sponsored homo- and transphobia. And also the imposition on the Italian city halls to stop the registration of children of same-sex parents, this puts a huge strain on children and it exposes them also to widespread discrimination and a lack of protection, and ultimately jeopardising them and hampering their rights to reach their full potential. Italian mayors like Beppe Sala, they are doing what should be done. They are upholding the rights of children and they put the children’s rights first. They do not want two categories of children in their municipalities. They have understood that recognising diverse families benefits everyone, and it takes no one’s entitlements away. Europe must guarantee all children to see their family acknowledged and validated by law. This is very important and this is a European issue.

The next item is the debate on the report by Dita Charanzová, on behalf of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on general product safety, amending Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Council Directive 87/357/EEC and Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (COM(2021)0346 - C9-0245/2021 - 2021/0170(COD)) (A9-0191/2022).

We will come to the votes. But firstI have received several requests for points of order and I ask the colleagues who asked for a point of order to be brief: one minute speaking time.

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, today my message is directed at our Member States. If patience is to be a virtue, it is, in the context of the horizontal anti-discrimination directive, despicable. Fifteen years of blockage, what a scandal! Yet visible and audible, the discrimination faced by too many of our fellow citizens does not seem to frighten blocking governments. Fifteen years of immobility, inaction by some national representatives, is the result of a lack of political courage. While legislation on discrimination in the labour market has already been adopted in the past, it should still be remembered that we only spend eight hours a day at our workplace. Protection against discrimination must be guaranteed 24 hours a day, both in the private sphere and in the workplace. It is therefore time to sweep our doors and enforce the values of equality within our Union. To this end, we Socialists and Democrats support Commissioner Dalli to ensure that under this mandate a solution is found to adopt a progressive text prohibiting all forms of discrimination in the different spheres of privacy of all those who live in our European Union. Dear colleagues, to all the far-right populist religious extremists who call us – who fight discrimination, who defend women’s rights, trans rights, LGBT rights, minority rights – ideologists, I just want to recall that they are the ideologists. We are just people who defend fundamental rights, and the far-right ultra-conservative politicians, the ideologists, they are against the Union of equality, a Union of equality which Commission President von der Leyen calls for, where Helena Dalli, the Commissioner for Equality, works so hard. Thank you for having presented all this equality strategy. Thank you for defending the concept of intersectional discrimination; by the way, intersectional discrimination is a term which is forbidden from Council language, and this is a shame and this can no longer go on like this. So I call on the Swedish Presidency: please do your best to work on this on this important subject, because fighting for equality, equal treatment is not giving more rights to one or the other, it’s just giving the same rights to everyone. And this is what we need in our European Union.

Mr President, just before you started chairing, the German MEP Christine Anderson from the ID Group, she talked about ‘Regenbogen Mafia’, ‘Rainbow Mafia’. And let me call let me recall the definition of ‘Mafia’. Mafia stands for an organised international body of criminals. And I think that people who defend the rights of rainbow families, people who defend LGBTI rights, they are not criminals. They are just human rights defenders, they defend fundamental rights. And I think that kind of talk is totally inappropriate for this Parliament. And it equals to me to hate speech. And hate speech has no place in this house.

The next item on the agenda is the topical debate (Rule 162): ‘More Europe, more jobs: we are building the competitive economy of tomorrow for the benefit of all’ (2023/2601(RSP)). I should like to inform Members that for this debate there is no catch-the-eye procedure and that no blue cards will be accepted. I would also like to invite the speakers to keep the time as we are running a bit late, so I want you to respect the times.

The minutes of yesterday’s sitting and the Texts adopted are available. Are there any comments on the Minutes of yesterday’s sitting? I don't see any. The minutes are approved.

The S&D Group has notified the President of a decision relating to changes to appointments within a committee. This decision will be set out in the Minutes of today’s sitting and takes effect on the date of this announcement.