Spegazzjonijiet tal-vot (in writing.) - It-tmien leġiżlatura Nessa CHILDERS

Today’s vote is a stepping stone in recognising the fundamental rights of intersex people in the EU, with the first ever resolution approved by the European Parliament.
People in Europe continue to be discriminated because of who they love, the body they are born with and the personal sense of their gender.
Parliament deplores the fact that, in many EU countries, transgender people are still considered mentally ill, and the consequences are devastating for some people, causing significant distress.
Furthermore, surgery and medical treatment are often performed on intersex children without their prior, personal and full and informed consent, which can cause life-long consequences, including psychological trauma and physical impairments.
Every child should be able to safely explore their gender identity and expression, without being subjected to harmful diagnostic practices.
Today we are calling on the Commission to keep acting in this field and adopt a new multiannual strategy during its next mandate.

It is vital to have clear rules regarding animal transport in Ireland and the rest of the EU. Most importantly, to ensure proper compliance with these rules – especially for journeys that cross intra—EU borders as well as borders with third countries – to ensure proper animal welfare standards throughout.
All farmed animals should be slaughtered as close as possible to the place of production and all meat products should be exported on the hook.
Live exports currently represent an important source of income for some farmers, especially in Ireland. However, live exports should ultimately be replaced with chilled or frozen meat products or carcasses. A country like Ireland risks its reputation for high welfare and high quality products by continuing to export live bulls and heifers (many in-calf) to third countries such as Libya where welfare standards are poor compared to Ireland and the rest of the EU.

I am disappointed to see a majority of my colleagues persisting with this model that grants big business an exclusive judicial forum to challenge government policy-making whenever they think decisions taken in the public interest will interfere with their profits.
The Investor Court System, which the EU executive champions as an important reform to a dispute settlement, actually maintains the all the perverse features of this flawed approach.
We are willingly taking our own governments hostage to a maximalist doctrine of ‘legitimate expectations’ from the business sector which can and does chill regulation, on pain of extortionately expensive litigation.
By pushing this model, particularly among developed countries, we are effectively undermining our own legal and judicial institutions, where the same legal standards should apply to all under the same conditions.
There is a groundswell of frustration and anger against the unequal dividends of globalisation among the general public.
Those who claim to defend it are actually undermining open societies by turning a deaf ear to their legitimate concerns.

It is clear that more efforts are needed in all areas of Roma integration in Europe. The resolution today is asking that the next Commission make Roma inclusion one of its priorities, as a follow up to last year’s Report on the fundamental rights aspects in Roma integration in the EU: fighting anti-Gypsyism.
Last year the Parliament asked for Member States to end statelessness, to ensure access to all the essential basic services, including healthcare, housing and education. However, since then very little progress has been made. Furthermore, Member States and the Commission should also ensure deeper involvement of Roma representatives in the development and implementation of this EU strategic framework.
Lastly, the Parliament is now asking for a wider set of priorities, clear targets, timelines and indicators for monitoring to be established so that, in the future, progress can be clearly evaluated. We sincerely hope these recommendations will be taken into account seriously and with urgency.

The unequal involvement of men and women in care and domestic activities remains a persistent challenge. The average amount of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work is more than three times higher for women than men. One year has passed since EU leaders signed the European Pillar of Social Rights and ye, there is little sign of progress as many of the legislative files falling under the Pillar have been stalled in the Council.
With an ageing population, the demand on care services is increasing year on year and the existing approaches to care are no longer suited to new models of work such as zero-hour contracts or night shifts.
It is a positive step that some Member States have introduced fiscal incentives for companies that provide childcare for their employees in order to improve work-life balance. However, new solutions are still lacking in many Member States. Furthermore, the Commission needs to ensure that the European Institute for Gender Equality possesses adequate resources to monitor the development of care infrastructure and the implementation of work-life balance policies.

Today’s vote is a crucial demand to improve diagnostics and treatment for Lyme disease patients. Lyme borreliosis is a bacterial disease transmitted to humans by the vector of a tick bite. The symptoms can often go unnoticed but if left untreated it can affect the skin, nervous or musculoskeletal system, leading in some cases to permanent damage. My colleagues and I have called for increased efforts to tackle the spreading of the disease to humans and to improve early treatment through reinforced awareness-raising measures, development of appropriate guidelines, and by ensuring sufficient financing for research that can improve the detection and treatment of Lyme disease. Currently Ireland cannot test for Lyme disease accurately as the Elisa blood test is only 50% accurate.
Accurate testing and effective treatments need to be available in Ireland and other EU Member States equally so patients can avoid having to travel to Germany and America for treatment at a huge cost.

The decarbonisation of road transport is a very effective way to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement and to help reduce air pollution. These changes, which we want to make today, would contribute toward curbing the increase of global temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
Currently, the CO2 emissions of heavy-duty vehicles represent about 6% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions. If we don’t act fast, this share will keep on growing.
We want to urge the Commission to act on the Parliament’s stance in order to contribute to better air quality in our cities by introducing public procurement obligations. Parliament is pushing for a binding target of zero-emission urban buses in a manufacturer’s fleet of 75% of new vehicles by 2030. Our citizens are demanding better air quality, and we must deliver.

. ‒ Ethnic and national minorities are still experiencing discrimination in the EU in everyday life situations. Today, my colleagues and I pushed for widening the scope of the text and for stronger rights for people belonging to minorities in different aspects of everyday life.
Any policy should be discussed and decided on with the full involvement and consultation of the different minorities. Moreover, we urge the Commission to come up with a common framework of EU minimum standards for the protection of minorities. In the face of persistent discrimination, violent attacks and hate crimes happening across Europe, it is vital that Member States strengthen the rights of minority groups and rectify policies which lead to the marginalisation of small communities.

I welcomed the European Parliament report on the import of cultural goods as another example of a due diligence system that the progressives on this side of the house have led. In the case of the import of cultural goods at risk of illicit trafficking, we have succeeded in including a full list of mandatory due diligence requirements that lacked in the proposal issued by the Committee responsible.
Fighting tax avoidance and tax evasion is vital: we cannot afford to lose billions of euros due to the lack of proper implementation by Members States of the Union Customs Code.
Today, I supported a move to establish a more thorough procedure for the import of cultural goods by means of import and export certificates which would shift the responsibility to prove licit ownership onto businesses with the least possible burden.

This proposal will help deliver clean air for our cities by putting cleaner and zero-emission buses on our streets. This is because the Directive would determine how Member States can toll vehicles for their use of the road.
Public authorities should be at the forefront of the transition to zero-emission mobility, setting an example to the rest of the economy. Furthermore, smart tolling would allow for tolls to improve logistic efficiency and promote cleaner trucks. Trucks in Europe are responsible for external costs of EUR 143 billion annually, only 30 % of which are covered through taxes and tolls.
The European Commission and governments should ensure local and regional authorities get enough funding to accelerate this transition and build the necessary infrastructure in order to achieve cleaner and better energy-efficient road transport vehicles.

The only way to address climate change is for every Member State, region and city to play their part. However, colleagues on the other side of this House ignore the need for more climate action. They praise the work achieved at the Paris Agreement, but when it comes to implementing concrete reduction targets in order to prevent a further temperature rise by 1.5°C or above, they stall.
The Special Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that the next ten years are crucial for defining our future. Current 2030 emissions targets (NDCs) must be drastically improved by 2020, and global emissions need to be reduced to zero latest by 2050.
The European Union Institutions and Member States must take responsibility and take a united and ambitious stance at COP24 in Katowice.

. ‒ Plastics are killing our marine life and the environment. Today we voted for provisions in this directive targeting the main sources of macro-plastics found in seas and beaches, which account for 70% of marine litter. This marine litter includes 10 single-use plastic products, as well as lost and abandoned fishing gear and there is no system in place to prevent further environmental damage.
Furthermore, plastic waste is the highest type of product found littering the streets in Ireland. In Dublin alone, over EUR 25 million is spent on street cleaning and litter management. We calculate that taxpayers pay around EUR 600/tonne for the clean-up and disposal of single-use packaging where under the current extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme, producers pay EUR 89/tonne.
It is vital that clean-up costs are covered in the EPR schemes, which is included in this directive. At the moment, the external economic, social and environmental costs of plastic pollution are being borne by local authorities, taxpayers, affected industries such as fishing and tourism, and even absorbed by volunteers.

. ‒ Everybody agreed that decades-old EU water quality and safety standards had to be brought up to date with scientific knowledge and environmental goals. Unfortunately, not everybody in Parliament agrees that vulnerable groups such as the homeless have a right to access to water. The first successful European Citizens’ Initiative ever called was precisely for European action to ensure water remains a public service and a public good. About a million people in 21st century Europe lack access to water, with close to ten times more lacking sanitation.
This review was a wasted opportunity to listen to the voice of our citizens and enshrine universal access to drinking water in European legislation. I was part of a progressive, cross-party coalition which pushed amendments to strengthen this proposal, and counted on the efforts of many colleagues such as my Dublin counterpart, Lynn Boylan, and the UK’s Rory Palmer.
It is unconscionable to see the cornerstone of those efforts scuppered by the commodifying mentality that, in Ireland, cost us millions in consultant fees that could have gone to works on atrocious leakage rates.

Over the past 10 years, more than 25 homes in Khan al-Ahmar have been demolished by the Israeli authorities. The village has more than 160 structures, including a school, a mosque and a clinic, mostly made of corrugated metal and wood.
Last month, the Israeli High Court allowed the Israeli authorities to proceed with the plans for the total demolition of the village.
We are calling for the Israeli authorities to immediately halt the demolition, the subsequent forcible transfer of its population as well as reversing their settlement policy. We cannot remain silent about this occupation, including the geographic fragmentation of the West Bank, segregation of its Arab citizens and the oppression of minority communities.
It is utterly deplorable that peers on the other side of the House voted against this resolution today. We should not need to remind our colleagues that forcible transfer of people under occupation is a serious breach of the IV Geneva Convention.

. ‒ A transition to a circular economy, whereby all products are designed to be recycled, re-used or remanufactured, is the only way we can curb plastic waste and prevent more ‘garbage patch’ zones in the world’s oceans. Currently, 100 000 tonnes of micro-plastics are floating in our oceans, putting animal and human health at risk. Unless we act urgently, in order to reduce our dependency on plastics, these numbers will continue to increase.
The EU Plastics Strategy is a necessary step forward in the Union’s transition towards a circular economy, and a crucial tool towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of preventing and reducing marine litter.
Today we have endorsed the Commission’s objective to make all plastic material reusable by 2030. We truly hope that the Commission now acts on this decision swiftly and implements the measures as soon as possible.

I am deeply disappointed with the outcome of today’s vote. I have had serious doubts about the implications of this copyright proposal for the online environment and for the freedoms individual users enjoy. Unfortunately, even the attempts we made since to safeguard right-holders without causing widespread damage to the interests of individual users were rejected by a majority.
As adopted in Parliament today, draconian provisions on liability for copyright infringement by individual users will force most platforms to preventively apply uploading filters so as not to fall afoul of the law. Likewise, this proposal fails to give users and platforms the legal certainty they need in order to quote and share snippets of news.
I fully appreciate and support all creators’ right to remuneration for their work, but similar attempts in national jurisdictions have failed to make them better off. It is now the turn of EU national governments to have their equal say on this proposal. I hope they will revisit these issues and listen to the many academics and internet experts who oppose it, as I cannot support it in its current form.

With this report, we are finally recognising that work-related stress is a growing problem in Europe.
We call on the Member States to introduce new and progressive legislation to ensure that workers who suffer from temporary, chronic and terminal health issues and disabilities are adequately protected and can remain in employment if they are able and if they choose to do so.
Against the background of an ageing workforce, more efforts should be made with regard to preventive measures, including individual working arrangements.
Any investment in this regard will help to cut spending on costly reintegration measures later on.
Furthermore, we expect the Commission to finally come forward with legislative proposals which will aim to protect workers from stress related diseases and musculoskeletal disorders.

Sexual harassment and mobbing are two of the most extreme and widespread forms of gender-based discrimination, with 90% of the victims being female. It is endemic across many EU Member States. That is why voting on this report today is a positive step towards establishing a clear and comprehensive definition of harassment so we can then put in place strategies at EU level in order to tackle this in the workplace and elsewhere.
Today, we are calling on the Commission to submit a proposal for a Directive against all forms of violence against women to ensure that legal loopholes will not result in impunity. We believe that at Member State level, something also needs to be done. For example, introducing measures to prevent and combat violence and harassment at the workplace through policies which set out prevention measures, effective, transparent and confidential procedures. There needs to be systems put in place to deal with complaints for victims and impose sanctions on the perpetrators.

Today, we voted to put this draft law on hold and allow for further scrutiny and amendments rather than green-lighting it in its current form and taking it to the negotiating table with the Council of EU Member States. I am relieved to see that a majority of colleagues heeded the call of those of us who see great danger in arts. 11 and 13 for the internet as we know it. This piece of legislation has been the object of an extraordinary lobby battle on both sides. While I understand the legitimate demand that creators be properly remunerated for their work, this is a wrong-headed expedient. Big media conglomerates have been pushing for neighbouring rights of dubious benefit to the journalists who toil for them, at the expense of the ways we share information with each other online. Also, we would be effectively compelling online platforms to pre-emptively screen all user uploaded content on pain of being held liable for individuals’ copyrights infringements. Platforms would be forced to police and censor individual uploads and, if in doubt, block them to stay on the right side of the law. I hope we will reverse course after summer.

Today we have voted for improving the European citizens’ initiative as an instrument of participatory democracy in the Union.
Reinforcing citizenship in the EU and enhancing the democratic functioning its institutions requires straight forward means to exercise the right to participate in the democratic process.
Several rules currently governing the European Citizens Initiative Regulation are too complex and burdensome for the ECI organisers, signatories and competent authorities in the individual Member States.
We have also committed to change the rules of procedure of the European Parliament in order to allow citizens to directly shape the debates which are held in the Parliament.
Following the public hearing of a successful citizens’ initiative in the European Parliament, the institution should hold a plenary debate, and if appropriate, pass a resolution addressing the concerns it raises.