- Before the vote:

  Barbara Matera, rapporteur. – (IT) Mr President, this is the first time that this Parliament has set out its position on the situation of single mothers in Europe, an increasingly vulnerable category of women at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

I should like to thank all the shadow rapporteurs and my colleagues from the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality who worked with me, and I will conclude with my hope that in the future, the European Commission will also address the situation of single fathers, who account for 15% of single-parent families in Europe. We talk about equal opportunities, so we need to consider women and men alike.