Speeches

Mr President, the future of humanity cannot exist without children. It is for them that we live, for them that we fight every day, including here in the European Parliament, to build a safer and better world. Their innocence is complemented by a corresponding fragility. They can easily become victims of criminals eager to use them. Recent reports show that 40% of young people involved in criminal gangs are under the age of 18, with alarmingly high rates of children as young as 12 or 13 involved in organised crime, as minors under the age of 14 are not criminally liable in many countries around the world. We cannot stand by while vulnerable children become victims of criminal exploitation. It is time to step up the fight against this plague. Preventive measures should focus on the most effective education and the most professional police. However, just as importantly, we must ensure that these children, when rescued, receive support for reintegration into society and rehabilitation. Together we can break the cycle of exploitation, protect our children and build a safer and fairer world for all.

Madam President, recent natural disasters in Spain, Romania, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Cyprus or Slovakia have caused serious damage to the populations of these areas. Hundreds have died and entire communities have been left in ruins, with significant damage to infrastructure, housing and business. Extensive reconstruction efforts will be needed in many cities and villages to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure and buildings, while ensuring that the reconstruction process is more resilient to future challenges. There is an urgent need for a common European approach to reduce pressure on local, regional and national budgets and reduce the risk of increased territorial inequalities caused by disasters. Immediate action is needed to mitigate the social and economic impact of these natural events. The Commission must therefore speed up and simplify the process of accessing European funds for reconstruction following the natural disasters that have occurred in recent months. Recent events have highlighted the importance of a fast and efficient mechanism allowing for the prompt use of these funds at a critical time for European citizens.

Mr President, Romania urgently needs the reopening of vocational schools of arts and crafts. We have become a country of university graduates who do not know how to do anything and who do not find jobs matching their diplomas, so they either go to unskilled jobs across borders or engage in such services even in the country. Today, in Romania, an electrician earns better than a lawyer or an engineer, for example, and even so you can't find him to hire him. This critical image of my country risks being reflected on Europe soon. If we do not allocate a lot of money for vocational education, we will end up importing such workforce only from outside the borders of the European Union, while our own citizens will be socially assisted. Collaboration between the European Union, the private sector and educational institutions is essential. We need to create partnerships that gather resources and expertise to ensure that training programmes meet the needs of tomorrow.

Madam President, drug trafficking is one of the biggest current threats to the physical and mental health of new generations, as well as the main source of income for organised crime groups. If the origin of cocaine is mainly related to South American countries, heroin from Afghanistan, the European country that produces the largest quantities of synthetic drugs is the Netherlands, and the main way of introduction into EU countries is through international courier companies. Therefore, information and routes are known, only control measures need to be tightened up. Did you know, for example, that sending a parcel by courier from the Netherlands does not require even an identity card? Anyone can send any product they want to any EU country without any control whatsoever. And once drugs enter the country, they are sold mainly to young people, even children, because the price for synthetic drugs is small and the punishments are too mild. In order to obtain their daily doses, a user becomes a trafficker over time and in this way the phenomenon of drug use increases. The European Union, which today knows how to say "No" firmly to products from Russia or China, must have the same strength to say "No" to drugs, regardless of the control measures that would be needed to prevent and combat this phenomenon.

Madam President, despite the efforts made at the level of the European Union and the Member States to ensure that citizens can live in safety, organised crime is coming as a scourge capable of undoing, through crime and terror, everything that has been built well before. Europol tells us that drug production and trafficking remains the largest criminal business in the EU, involving almost 40% of active criminal groups. We are therefore facing an alarming increase in the smuggling of toxic substances, waste, hazardous residues with a high potential for risk to the environment and people, and the conflict in Ukraine has also made us more vulnerable in the fight against tobacco smuggling. Organised crime is a form of terrorism and Europe has a duty to prevent and combat any danger to its citizens. The time has come to prioritise the lives and safety of Europeans over others. In order to effectively prevent and combat this phenomenon, two essential things are needed: first, the increase of penalties, and second, the confiscation of the property and money of the persons involved in such activities, because without money and means, the crimes remain only at the stage of intent. The European Union, which opens its doors wide to immigrants, is responsible and responsible for ensuring the safety of its citizens, which is why it must allocate additional funds to equipping and training law enforcement forces in the Member States.

Madam President, dead people, destroyed families, thousands of homes affected, impassable roads, whole villages where children will no longer be able to go to school and where dozens of families have no place to sleep tonight. These people are also Europeans. Romania has been hard-pressed since the aggression against Ukraine began. The market was invaded by Ukrainian grain, which caused immense damage to Romanian farmers. The roads used by Ukrainian trucks have worn out due to outdated tonnage. All this time, whenever Europe needed our involvement and help, we were there. Today, Romania needs the involvement of Europe. Romanian children, like Ukrainian children, have the right to go to school tomorrow. Romanian parents, like Ukrainian parents, have the right to sleep peacefully at night, knowing that they have a roof over their head and food for the children the next day. I stand before you today and tell you that it is time for Europe to treat Romanian citizens, who are European citizens, with the same love and friendship as it does Ukrainian citizens.

Mr President, the European Union is facing an unprecedented challenge: The shortage of labor, while the birth rate is falling. People leave our country to work more and more often outside the EU, and we are forced to import labor from other continents, often unskilled. The explanations for this exodus are many, but I would dwell on an essential one: people's need for housing and the financial impossibility of affording one. Property is what keeps you connected to your country and family, gives you the responsibility to get more involved in the needs of the community, gives you the courage and confidence to start a family and have children. Lack of property, per a contrarioIt makes you independent, but fickle, untied to a particular country, without having the confidence to stay long-term in one place and invest in it, always looking for better elsewhere. If we really care about our young people and we want them to thrive here, in the European Union, to work here, pay taxes here and have children here, then we owe it to them to provide them with conditions, that is affordable housing, with European and national support, because that is the only way we convince them to stay here, at home.