Speeches

Madam President, thank you very much. I would like to begin by thanking you. Thank you to everyone at flotillan. Thank you to all the millions of people around the world who take the streets and demonstrate. You have taken the responsibility that world leaders have so cowardly refused to take. You have been mocked and scoffed at from this hall and from governments like the Swedish one. The indulgence of these leaders towards Israel and the genocide of Palestinians will go down in history as an unprecedented and unforgivable betrayal. We are witnessing genocide in real time. You see it, I see it, everyone in this House sees it. The pressure on Israel must increase. More people have to go to the streets and squares. Political sanctions must be imposed on Israel and the war criminals must be brought to justice. The goal is a free Palestine, that a free Palestine will emerge between the olive groves.

Madam President, thank you very much. I would like to begin by thanking the rapporteur for the way in which these negotiations have been conducted. At the same time, there is no denying that there are major ideological differences here, which is good in itself, because this should be the case in politics. The problem, I think, is what governs Europe. It is this neoliberal, obsolete belief in deregulation. Deregulation is the freedom of the market, not the freedom of man. When the railways were deregulated, responsibility was split, safety deteriorated and trains were delayed. When the electricity market was deregulated, we were promised lower prices, but we had runaway costs and electricity companies that take home the big buck. When welfare opened up to private actors, it would bring diversity, but instead we got segregation, kindergartens where children go hungry and schools run as businesses rather than knowledge institutions. Deregulation moves power from all of us to businesses. They turn citizens into customers and fundamental rights into goods in a market. We need to reverse that trend. We need stronger public responsibility for welfare, for infrastructure and for our common future. For society is actually best when it is governed by rules and common decisions, by solidarity with each other and not by profit-making interests.

Madam President, thank you very much. I understand that my colleague here claims that I am from Renew, but I am not. I'm from The Left. I'm also a lawyer at heart, and that means I'm extremely concerned. I am extremely concerned about all the attempts that I see when trying to circumvent fundamental human rights, when by proposing this new constitution and the change, it is trying to circumvent not only European law but the European Convention on Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international treaties. I think that should worry everyone in this House, regardless of which party group you belong to.

Madam President, thank you very much. Slovakia is now trying to circumvent EU law, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international treaties. Let's make sure they don't get away with it. The right to control one's own body is non-negotiable. Women's right to abortion must be a cornerstone of any democracy. Deteriorating for LGBTQ people, denying same-sex couples the right to start a family – this is institutionalised discrimination, and it must never be normalised. Creating a social climate that is suspicious because of gender, sexual orientation or background is dangerous. Giving in to reactionary forces that make a difference between people and people is dangerous. It's really dangerous. To the people of Slovakia, I would like to say: Your struggle for freedom and dignity is also our struggle. We see you, we hear you, and we are with you.

Madam President, thank you very much. Imagine standing alone, stranded on a platform with packed bags in your hands and no one taking responsibility for the situation. You should contact the travel agent, who will refer you to the train company, who will refer you back to the travel agent. This is the reality for many travelers. Too often, companies have too much power and people too little. There are parts of this proposal that are good. For example, it is good that the traveler should have the right to choose money instead of value cheques, and that is something that I have pushed for. But a lot remains before you as a traveler can actually feel completely safe. Far too often, corporate profits take precedence over people's right to security, and it is the responsibility of politics to ensure that no one is left alone on the platform.

Mr President, thank you very much. We need to be clear. Public procurement has become a race to the bottom. When the lowest price often wins, it is no longer quality that controls, then it is the backs of the workers that are bent. We see companies squeezing wages, ignoring collective agreements and sending out responsibility in long subcontracting chains. The result: workers who are exploited, workplaces without safety and, in the worst case, deaths at work. This is the reality when the pursuit of profit is allowed to take precedence over people's lives. In Gothenburg, the city was not even allowed to demand a collective agreement. The current EU rules came to an end, and that is completely absurd. Authorities across the EU do not dare to impose fair conditions. They're afraid of being sued by corporate lawyers. That's what happens that can't happen. Foolish companies, sometimes pure criminals, take home procurements while serious companies are knocked out. Is that how we really want to spend our tax dollars? No, we should build security, not exploitation. Public procurement should be a guarantee of quality and good conditions, not a springboard for cheating and cynical profit hunting. You have to be able to set high standards for companies that receive tax money. No man should have to risk his life because someone else offered the cheapest.

Madam President, thank you very much. In Gaza, mothers try to breastfeed their children, but they don't have any milk to give because they themselves are starving. I would like to ask you to reflect on what it does to a person to see their child fade away from hunger – not being able to help, not being able to comfort. And as a mother, I can't imagine any worse pain. For 620 days you have looked away, you have asked us to be silent about the genocide, you have turned your back on the Palestinians. For 620 days you have been sitting on the power to act, but you have chosen not to do so. Do you not understand that your children will judge you for it? Let the message from the streets and squares of Europe echo in here. The occupation will fall, the bombs will be silenced, the genocides will be condemned and Palestine will be free. Act. Act now.

Mr President, thank you very much. Sometimes I wonder if we live in the same reality. If you ask the Commission or the EPP or the right in my country what is threatening the European economy, you will be told that environmental requirements are too high for businesses, that it is too difficult to open up the public sector to competition, that there is a need for fewer rules and more liberalisation. But I see a completely different reality. I see people who barely get enough wages to feed, I see workers who are forced to move from country to country, from gig to gig in a market where security is seen as a barrier to flexibility. I see an internal market that, rather than lifting the conditions for everyone, drives a race to the bottom: on wages, labour law, welfare and the environment. What we are debating today is permeated by the same logic. Fewer barriers, faster procurement, more flexibility, less democratic influence – all for the market. But what happens when we break the rules for companies? We also often tear down protection for people. We tear down rules that are there to safeguard our everyday lives, to secure fair working conditions, to preserve our environment and to keep democracy alive. We on the left want to say that this is the wrong way. We don't need fewer rules, we need the right rules: rules that protect people, not profit margins, rules that put climate, equality and security above market logic. For it is not we who are unrealistic – it is the blind belief in deregulation that is the real threat to the future.

Madam President, thank you very much. People struggle to afford food, but what does the ruling right do in Sweden and in the EU? Nothing. In Sweden, three food wholesalers decide prices and take home billions of dollars, while families with children are forced to opt out of basic goods. Three food giants – it is an oligopoly and it drives prices up every day. The right often talks about the importance of competition, but when it comes to ordinary people being able to afford to eat their fill, the right ... does nothing. How can it be reasonable for a few companies to control what we eat and what it costs? Over a hundred years ago, people, mostly women and workers, went out in the potato uprising all over Sweden. I actually see a similar desperation as then, even though it's been a whole century. Food prices are politics. Food should be a right for everyone and everyone should be able to afford a good cup of coffee.

Madam President, thank you very much. On Thursday, Swedish journalist Joakim Medin was arrested in Turkey. He is now imprisoned in Marmara High Security Prison, and is accused of violating Erdogan. This is, of course, completely unacceptable and there is total political agreement in Sweden on this. I send my thoughts today to Joakim and to Joakim's family at this difficult time. Freedom of the press is a fundamental right in the EU. Journalists should be free to report even news that those in power find bothersome. And that Erdogan in this way tries to intimidate into silence must therefore be condemned. Joakim must be released. Today, I would like to ask the Commission and the Polish Presidency to express their clear support for the immediate release of the Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, and for all possible pressure to be put on Turkey to stop intimidating and imprisoning journalists.

Madam President, thank you very much. Last week, 15 paramedics and rescue workers were executed by Israeli forces. We dig them up in their uniforms with the gloves on. They were here to save lives. Instead, they end up in a mass grave," says a UN chief. At the same time as this happened, Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard went to Israel on a pure propaganda trip. And Israel's foreign minister, of course, praised the visit and praised Sweden for having broken its support for vital UNRWA. It's an unimaginable shame. Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard! Called the Commissioner! You have the power to stop the genocide. You have a duty to stand up for international law. Your indulgence against the brutal Israeli regime will go down in history as an unprecedented betrayal.

Madam President, thank you very much. The EU's indulgence towards the Israeli government will go down in history as an unprecedented betrayal, not only of the Palestinian population but also of international law. As a lawyer, I am horrified. I am appalled that the rules we agreed upon after the Second World War – that the horrors we had then witnessed would never happen again – seem to be worth zero and nothing. For how can the EU meet Israeli representatives and talk about cooperation when genocide is going on? How can the EU accept that member states ignore the ICC arrest warrant against Israeli ministers? How can the EU close its eyes when Israel sabotages the ceasefire, prevents emergency aid from reaching Gaza and allows the bulldozers to roll into the West Bank? The EU must now clearly and genuinely, not only in words, support the initiatives that exist around the reconstruction of Gaza and really, not only in words, distance itself from any proposals that involve displacement of people and violations of international law.

Mr President, thank you very much. It has been 30 years since the Beijing Declaration, and we have not come any further. This is a far too weak and watered-down commitment from the Commission. There is a lot of focus on entrepreneurship, competition and growth. But the Commission ignores the fundamental right of women to our bodies. Where is the right to abortion? We have a rights charter that protects people's right to start a business, but not women's right to our bodies. Where are the proposals on consent law? Has the Commission not followed the terrible case of Gisèle Pelicot in France? Where are the international commitments? That the US cuts aid risks over 11 million women's lives when it comes to their right to sexual and reproductive health. 11 million! Where is Europe's solidarity? We are writing 2025. This roadmap is disappointing. We should have gone further.

Mr President, thank you very much. There is a little ‘good-bye axe shaft’ on this proposal. Well, you have to say that anyway. Constantly changing the rules of the game for companies creates uncertainty and, in the long run, actually bad competition. If the Commission does not want to listen to me, then you can listen to the CEO of Volvo Cars when he says that the EU is now backing down from its previous climate demands. "We are very disappointed in the EU," he said. Through the Omnibus package, the European Commission pretends that fewer environmental and climate requirements and worse rules for workers increase competition. But it's just the opposite. Deregulation and reduced societal demands on companies lead to inferior products and services and, in addition, often popular anger. Believe me, I'm from Sweden: Our pharmacies barely have medications, but there is make-up and chocolate in abundance. Our schools are owned by venture capitalists. Our trains rarely run on time. But I actually think that the Commission should listen to the head of Volvo when he says that those who did not meet the requirements have put the effort into getting the rules of the game changed to suit them. I'm hugely disappointed.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. This is ridiculous, but also very, very serious. With the stubbornness of a fool and like a parrot, the Commission and the right in this House repeat: Simplifications, Simplifications, Simplifications. And that is what the Commission and the right mean by competition. But who is affected when rules to protect us are removed? We are now seeing attacks on workers' rights and how precise attempts are being made to lower the rules that companies should not exploit slave labour. In Sweden, my country, 44 workers died last year. Fathers and mothers who in the morning left their children in kindergarten, but who never had the opportunity to pick them up and see them again. In many of these cases, there were not too many rules that were the problem. There were too few rules. Simplification of rules. It is about deregulating society, about giving politics and the people less and less say. This opens the door to competition for poor conditions. One Race to the Bottom. And it's a competition, my friends, with only a few winners while the rest of us are losers.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. Gisèle Pelicot was drugged and exploited by neighbors and acquaintances. Yesterday, the German media revealed a huge rape network on social media. In war-torn countries such as Sudan and Congo, rape is put in a system. That men take the right to exploit women's bodies is the ultimate expression of a society where men still have more power than women. And as a representative of mine has said: it is the same norm, the same structure, the same pattern that is repeated both in the Taliban's Afghanistan and here, in this case in our European Union. When the important UN declaration on women's rights is now to be evaluated, it is therefore so important that we as a European Parliament can back up the left's proposal that sex without consent should be considered rape. All over the world, we women are raising our voices. Just a yes is a yes.

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your In many conflicts, including Sudan and Congo, rape is used as a weapon. Sexual violence affects women on the ground in war zones, but also women on the run. But while we are sitting in this room debating, the EU is actually funding violence. In its quest to outsource the reception of refugees to other countries, the EU is fuelling conflicts and gross human rights violations. whereas there are allegations that EU money went to the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces in Sudan – a group identified by Human Rights Watch as repeatedly using sexual violence in its warfare; We have also seen it in Libya, we have seen it in Tunisia, how the European Union funds violence in order to prevent people from getting here. This has got to stop. No more tax money to perpetuate or facilitate violence. No more migration pacts.

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your Yesterday, the Swedish government called a press conference about young people's screen time and use of apps such as TikTok and Instagram. In Sweden, one in ten girls is estimated to be screen-dependent. The Minister of Social Affairs talked about how the excessive use of smartphones causes severe injuries, such as poor sleep and poor mental health, and that parental responsibility is great. That, of course, is true. But it is also true that we live in a time when some of the most powerful companies in the history of the world control not only our private lives but also a large part of the public and the economy. The business model itself is to get us addicted, spread disinformation and hatred. It is a model that generates large profits for a few. Society needs to do more here. Here, the EU must do more to break up the dominance of tech giants and limit their business models. Member States and the Commission have the tools. So roll up your sleeves, get to work and make sure it costs tech giants to rule our lives and limit our democracies.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. 2017 marked a revolution. Me too, a global movement in which we women broke the silence about sexual abuse. However, 85,000 women are still murdered every year. Violence is the ultimate expression of men taking the right to control women's bodies and lives. From Gisèle Pelicot in the French courtroom through Polish women's struggle for abortion rights to women in the United States, who are now fighting for their reproductive rights, to women protesting in Iran. whereas anti-feminist movements not only threaten women’s rights when they try to silence us in homes, workplaces and public spaces – the hatred of us women who organise us politically is also ever present and a threat to democracy; But we resist. The personal is political. We stand here today, we will stand here tomorrow and we will always place the blame where it belongs and demand political reforms that give us women human rights, no matter where in the world we are.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. I think the Swedish government should read the Draghi report. Where the report proposes massive investments in the future, which could be used to implement the green transition – better jobs, better education – Sweden is now deciding to save. This is despite a very low government debt. In the Swedish schools, massive cuts are being made. Stupidity, said a Swedish bank manager, and I agree. For too long, politicians in this Parliament and across Europe have clung to an outdated idea that it is the market that will unilaterally solve the future for all of us, that the future will be built by someone else. Now the signal from the EU must be clear: The Member States, including Sweden, are also expected to make major investments in education, not cuts. You can't save yourself in the future.

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your This UN report is of great importance – not only for Polish women, but for all the women in the world. It says that women's rights are human rights, that abortion rights are a human right. It should be self-evident – it is 2024 anyway – but it is not. Men all over the world still have the right to control our bodies, to limit our lives, to put women in danger. It is now up to us in this Parliament to act. The right to abortion must be enshrined in the European Charter of Rights. No country should be able to continue to use violence against our bodies. To those of you who say it's complicated, that you have other objections, I say: Get your act together! The right to start a business is currently enshrined in the Charter and it is fine. But how can it be that it is more important than the right to our lives? Follow the UN recommendations! Decide that abortion is a human right.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. I will start by saying that I am glad that we are having this discussion, because the situation is unsustainable. From the Left, we have long demanded a tighter regulatory framework for e-commerce platforms. A recent test by the toy industry shows that 8 out of 10 toys imported into the EU that can be purchased on various internet sites are at risk of suffocating or poisoning children: Suffocating and poisoning our children. They do not meet EU safety requirements. Our task as legislators is to ensure that the risk of accidents is reduced, that citizens are safe and secure. We do this by rewarding environmentally friendly and safe products, while ensuring that the working conditions of those who produce these things are good. It is not only children and other consumers in Europe who are at risk of harm. There are recurrent indications that many of these products, in addition to being harmful, are also made with forced labour. The Commission must act – not only because this laxity towards foreign internet sites competes with lower standards and worse working conditions than goods produced under EU law. In fact, the current regulatory framework leads to major risks for all citizens – not least for our children. The solution must be that foreign sites will also have the same obligations as domestic operators, that customs will have more resources and that goods imported, for example from China, will no longer be subsidised when it comes to, for example, shipping costs.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. More and more people can't afford a home, and that's serious. The EU is currently an obstacle to Swedish housing policy, and I say this after several years of working with rental law and supporting tenants in the Swedish housing market. We have not social housing in Sweden, but today's state aid rules from the EU prevent our public utilities and public housing companies from building and managing according to a cost principle. People’s homes are not just any good – having a roof over one’s head is a human right. It is good that the Commission is now preparing a plan for housing construction. It must also work in countries that do not have social housing. I therefore expect a focus on changing state aid rules, preventing speculation about people's housing and strengthening tenants' rights.

Mr President, I would like to thank you. More than 10 million Sudanese are internally displaced, 70% of the population is at risk of starvation – people like you and me. But let's also talk about the elephant in the room: how the EU, in its eagerness to outsource the reception of refugees to other countries, risks feeding conflicts and serious crimes against people. There are many claims that EU money went to just Rapid Support Forces. We've seen it with Libya and we've seen it with Tunisia: how the EU funds violence to prevent people from getting here, regardless of the people it harms or the groups it funds. This has got to stop. No more immigration deals.

I must say that I did not fully understand the entrance. What we see in Sweden and Denmark – for nine years – is border controls, randomly carrying out this type of check. I travel that route every week, and it is a problem not only for those who are exposed and experience racial profiling, but also for a region where both Denmark and Sweden have invested incredibly large sums in developing border cooperation – a border cooperation that is now in danger of being broken. I think this is so risky that we should be concerned about internal mobility from both sides of this Parliament.