Home Josianne CUTAJAR

It has been 25 years since the Beijing declaration was drafted. A landmark moment for the fight on gender equality. Almost three decades after, women and girls worldwide are still facing the same problems. Poverty, unequal access to education, gender-based violence, lack of equal opportunities, gender pay gap, sex trafficking, and the absence of women in decision making positions are only some of the many still existing today. Today however, we need to do more as new problems have arisen. Social, economic and cultural factors make women worldwide more vulnerable to climate change, while the digital world has opened an entire new dimension for harassment and abuse. Fortunately, we are slowly developing new technological tools that can help us in this fight. Key to it all will be data. We need to collect sex- disaggregated data and comparative gender statistics. There is no gender equality without data equality. Although I abstained on parts of the text, with the interest of women worldwide and the fight for gender equality in my heart, I voted in favour of the resolution.

Covid-19 has had a dramatic impact on aviation. Air traffic has dropped to a historical low, a 90% drop compared to previous years. In the midst of the crisis, the European Commission issued a full airport slot waiver, the “use it or lose it” rule, allowing air carriers to flexibly manage their operations, without having to fly empty planes in order to preserve their future right to claim slots. Although we are still in the middle of the pandemic, we must attempt to restart aviation. Following an initial unrealistic proposal from the Commission, pressure from Parliament led to new rules on airport slots that will allow air carriers to plan ahead for the Summer. The measures will still ensure that air carriers can adapt their operations to their needs, continuing to weather out the storm. For these reasons, I voted in favour of the urgent procedure.