Alex AGIUS SALIBA

Policy topics Alex AGIUS SALIBA is active on

What Alex AGIUS SALIBA has said (67)

• 2026-07-14 “We have a legislative instrument in the directive and we should and we must continue to use it. And while VR headsets, drones, video games, controllers and wearables like smartwatches are a smaller part of the market, it has been rapidly growing, making regulatory regulation relevant. Also from a consumer perspective when it comes to extending the scope of the common charger, especially as the Commission report has found that extending the scope to these categories entails limited adaptation costs for manufacturers. So two questions from my end. How will the commission turn these crystal clear conclusions into action? And when we can expect proposals to enlarge the scope of the Common Charger Directive. And my second question, could you elaborate on what you are planning to do to enforce the existing requirements? As your study found that over 60% of device owners still experience difficulties charging them with another charger? Does the commission see this as a problem? And if yes, how do you intend to rectify the situation? Thanks a lot.”
  Radio equipment (common charger)
• 2026-07-14 “Thank you, chair, and thanks, dear colleagues. And also thanks for the commission for this important study. I am happy, first of all, to hear that the directive has made a positive difference for many ordinary citizens. And I believe that this should be a landmark of the priorities that we should maintain here in the European Parliament and also in the Commission and Council when it comes to the priorities, priorities which change the lives of our consumers for for the better, as we have read in the report. The. Of the Commission published last week, 84% of Europeans expressed a positive view of the common charger, and we have between 55 and 65% who are in favour of continuing to extend the scope. The numbers in the report show us why the benefits for European consumers can run into tens, tens of millions of euros if we apply the common charger standard and common charger requirements to other consumer electronics, electronics and also wearables. And this comes on top of the non-material benefits and inconvenience to not have to carry on multiple charges for different devices. Despite the USBc becoming a standard, we cannot leave it just to the goodwill of producers to be able to implement it, as it will slow down the uptake and could also fragment the internal market.”
  EU competences on consumer protection and product standards
• 2026-06-24 “Thanks a lot, chair. Again, when it comes to Digital Networks Act proposal, I think that we should appreciate the sheer size and the topics that are being covered here. Many of them falling exclusively under Imco remit. And this is why I have been very vocal and in favour of shared competence for our committee on this file. But unfortunately this did not materialise itself. Therefore, it makes me call on the rapporteur of this opinion to make the most out of her role in influencing the work of our colleagues, especially when it comes to the effect that the DNA will be directly having on our consumers. I will not cover all the elements in the face of the limited time that we have, but let me pick up some of my priorities. One of the most pressing issues that I see with the Commission proposal is the limitation that could result for national authorities to act and safeguard the competition in their national markets. We should be Extremely, extremely cautious to give more power to the Commission in overruling the national telecom authorities, because we have seen in the past that this held back authorities that wanted to act in the interests of consumers and also businesses. Already now, I am coming from a small member states where we have three telco operators competing against each other, competing for better pricing, competing for better infrastructure. Still, I receive a lot of complaints from my constituents on uncompetitive behaviour of the current players on the market. Imagine, just imagine if we end up with several large European telcos that operate on a new scale, that that would mean that for consumers, for example, in Malta, that can end up with fewer choices, higher prices and worse service.”
  EU rules on digital competition
• 2026-06-24 “The Chair Thanks for giving us the opportunity to present the draft Imco opinion for the data omnibus. As you know, the leading committee is on this file. Ah, but there are certain elements that used to be exclusive competence Where we should leave our mark on this very important exercise that we are doing right now. It is my intention to maximize the influence of our committee, especially when it comes to the consumer protection elements in the data economy, and also the position of small and medium sized businesses towards digital platforms. While I support the simplification efforts of the Commission proposal. My draft opinion shows great reservations when it comes to deregulation or undermining undermining the European digital acquis, to name just one example, the draft opinion Welcoming welcomes the simplification, simplification and bringing the Data Governance Act and the Open Data Directive under one overarching European Data Act. It is less clear for the deregulatory elements of the proposal, like, for example, the repeal of the platform to business regulation or the changes made to the GDPR and the e-privacy directive. I do not see the benefit. Consumers or the functioning of the internal market will get from this kind of deregulation. For this reason, the draft opinion contains several amendments to bring more balance between simplification and consumer protection. However, the proposed amendments are limited to what ultimately is the competence of this committee. Parts not amended, especially when it comes to the GDPR, should not be understood as being supported by myself on the Data Act. The draft opinion aims to clarify the definition of data access and strengthening the definition of data intermediation services. Also, we add the concept of data expert representative as a specific kind of regulated data intermediation service that can negotiate under a fiduciary duty on behalf of consumers to to attain better terms for their data use.”
  Privacy & digital economy
• 2026-06-24 “With this draft opinion, we strengthen the safeguards on what kind of organizations are allowed to register as data intermediation service. An annual transparency report is required for data altruism organizations to bring accountability. Competent authorities can also monitor compliance on requests of individuals or legal persons, and the draft opinion includes also a complaint handling mechanism concerning the cloud switching rules. The draft opinion seeks to restore the current text under the Data Act to to foster more competition, avoid blocking effects that could favor incumbents and allow companies to find ways to circumvent the switching requirements by claiming to have custom made services on smart contracts. The draft opinion does not take on board the proposed deletion by the commission. Finally, on platform to business regulation to be the rapporteurs, the rapporteur considers there would be gaps by repealing this regulation, even if we do so in two stages, the P to be adds value to SMEs on top of what is in the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, which have a totally different scope. B2b should therefore not be repealed without a proper impact assessment on the effects on SMEs and other European businesses. As you rightly pointed out, chair, when it comes to timelines, we foresee the deadline for tabling of amendments for the 8th of July at noon, and we hope to vote this opinion in Imco in November of this year to be on time to influence the report on the data omnibus. I am looking forward for comments from other shadows and other members of this committee, and I hope that we can work constructively together, um, on this very important piece of data legislation. Thanks a lot.”
  EU rules on digital competition
• 2026-06-24 “Imagine if from three operators we end up with one big pan-European telecom operator. It is true that we need to invest in networks that make our digital economies run, but not over the back of consumers that, in the end, will have to foot the bill. Overall, the EU consumer is getting a better deal, better value for money than, for example, the American telecoms customer. Let us keep that this way. Let's keep the internal market competitive at both European and also member state level. Therefore, we need the telecom regulators that can enforce measures without a commission veto. Then let me quickly mention other issues that concern me and my group when it comes to fibre networks and copper switch off. We need to make sure that we do not leave anyone behind. If we are talking about 5% of consumers that might not have an offer. We are talking about 20 million consumers in Europe, some of them vulnerable, the majority of them in very remote areas. That is hard to accept and we will need solutions when it comes to net neutrality. We would like to keep the current safeguards in place and are very. And we are very cautious with moving the provisions from the regulation on open internet access. This is an essential part of the EU's digital action that we want to safeguard here. Let me end with noting that the universal access provisions and on the emergency telephone numbers will also have a special attention from me and my group. I am looking forward to work with the rapporteur, and I am counting on our committee to put the interests of consumers and the functioning of the internal market central when it comes to the discussions on the DNA.”
  EU rules on digital competition
• 2026-06-24 “Just a few comments also from my end. As I said, it's really important for us to try to find the right balance between simplification, which is also important, especially when it comes to data. Data is the backbone for all the digital ecosystem. So it's really important to continue to work in that direction, especially for the very basic scope of this exercise, to create one overarching piece of data legislation. So there I think the majority of all political groups, we are in line. I'm also happy that EPP are also in line with us when it comes to be, to be. This is also a very important point, and I think that we as an internal market committee, we should, um, stay strong on this point. And ultimately, the most important thing is to find the right balance between simplification and consumer protection. And I hope that, um, we can continue to work together to find and to have a strong opinion from this committee on this very important piece of data legislation. Thanks a lot.”
  Privacy & digital economy
• 2026-06-17 “Thank you, president. Our children are our most precious thing. We want them to succeed, but nowadays, every parent is frustrated to see their children dependent on social media that undermines their progress. If you have teenage children, you can fully understand this concern. They spend a lot of time looking at a screen, excessive time, endless scrolling repetitively in extreme cases. This is also leading to serious mental health issues. Some of these children also committing suicide. This is a pandemic, and it requires immediate action. This is way where the DSA comes in. We need to make sure that it it is enforced. We also need the Digital Fairness Act. We must ensure that these toxic models within these platforms need to be addressed as quickly as possible. Thank you. Please, everyone stick to your speaking time.”
  Safety features & content control for child protection online
• 2026-06-16 “That believes that Europe can its economy in the hands of Donald Trump and his big tech oligarchs. We have seen what happened to the international court judges being cut off from essential digital services because of sanctions. Just try to imagine living without Microsoft, Mastercard and other American technology. Good luck. But you cannot. And therefore Europe cannot ignore its tech dependency. A kill switch to turn off technology is not only a risk today, but it is a reality Friday. The US administration decided to turn off the most powerful AI models of anthropic for the EU. This is a watershed moment. Europe needs to control its own tech infrastructure if it wants sovereignty. If we want to stop the blackmail, we need to build our own solutions using the tech talent that we have in Europe. We can build it cheaper and provide services that do respect our rules. So let us make more use of them. The tech sovereignty package needs that ambition. If it wants to play in the hands of EU companies and truly make a difference. Part of the solution is swift and strict enforcement of our tech rules. Our legislation protects our citizens and our market from online abuse, but Big Tech is not abiding with it. Being sovereign means that our citizens and this Parliament decides on the rules of the game and not the almighty big tech companies. If they want to enter our internal market, they need to respect our rules and respect them in full.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• 2026-06-16 “Is there anyone left that believes that Europe can its economy in the hands of Donald Trump and his big tech oligarchs? We have seen what happened to the international court judges being cut off from essential digital services because of sanctions. Just try to imagine living without Microsoft, Mastercard, and other American technology. Good luck, but you can't. And therefore, cannot ignore its tech dependency. A kill switch to turn off technology is not only a risk today, but it is a reality. Friday, the US administration decided to turn off the most powerful AI models of entropic for the EU. This is a watershed moment. Europe needs to control its own tech infrastructure if it wants sovereignty. If we want to stop the blackmail, we need to build our own solutions using the tech talent that we have in Europe. We can build it cheaper and provide services that do respect our rules, so let's make more use of them. The tax sovereignty package needs that ambition if it wants to play in the hands of you companies and truly make a difference. Part of the solution is swift and strict enforcement of our tech rules. Our legislation protects our citizens and our market from online abuse, but Big Tech is not abiding with it. Being sovereign means that our citizens and this parliament decides on the rules of the game and not the almighty Big Tech companies. If they want to enter our internal market, they need to respect our rules and respect them in full.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• 2026-03-16 “Answer given by Executive Vice-President Mînzatu on behalf of the European Commission 4.5.2026 Written question The Commission has indeed received feedback from certain stakeholders indicating that a generic name ‘Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine’ would better reflect the scope of the national medical specialties currently listed in the table under the generic name ‘Physiotherapy’ in point 5.1.3 of Annex V to Directive 2005/36/EC [1] . Currently, the Commission has the competence to update through delegated acts, upon notification from a Member State, the national titles listed in the table that give right to automatic recognition between Member States whose qualifications feature in the table. Any change to the generic name of the table would require legislative amendment to the directive as it falls outside the delegated powers conferred on the Commission. The Commission is currently looking into the possibility of a systemic solution to this issue as part of its evaluation of Directive 2005/36/EC. Annex V to the directive is used in the context of recognition procedures by competent authorities. Its contents and structure clearly indicate that professional qualifications of specialist doctors are recognised under the ‘automatic’ regime based on national evidence of formal qualifications expressly listed in point 5.1.3 of Annex V. Member States notify the evidence of national qualifications to the Commission and on that basis the Commission regularly updates the annex through delegated acts. Consequently, the names of national specialties in the annex reflect the current names used by Member States (e.g., Mediċina ta' Rijabilitazzjoni for Malta) [2] . This system ensures legal certainty for the automatic recognition of professional qualifications in medical specialties. [1] Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02005L0036-20251029. [2] Also, e.g., Medicina fisica e riabilitativa for Italy, Physikalische und Rehabilitative Medizin for Germany, or Médecine physique et de réadaptation for France.”
  EU competences on health
• 2025-06-18 “E-002469/2025 Answer given by Ms Roswall on behalf of the European Commission Waste incineration does not contravene EU law provided the requirements under notably the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) 1 and the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (EIA) 2 are followed. Member States are also required to take into account the five-step ‘waste hierarchy’ in the Waste Framework Directive 3 setting out an order of preference for managing and disposing of waste: first prevention; then preparing for re-use; recycling; other recovery, e.g. energy recovery; and only as a last resort disposal such as landfilling or incineration without energy recovery. It shall be a condition of any permit for incineration or coincineration with energy recovery that the recovery of energy take place with a high level of energy efficiency 4 . The above legal requirements, including the waste hierarchy, apply also to islands. European structural and investment funds 5 target circular economy solutions tailored to Outermost Regions and islands due to their dependence on resource imports, high waste generation fuelled by tourism, and waste exports 6 . As per the IED, waste incinerators must be operated according to a permit delivered by the competent authority. This permit must, among other things, include emission limit values in line with the IED and the relevant Best Available Techniques (BAT) Conclusions 7 . The EIA requires that certain projects likely to have significant effects on the environment are subject to an assessment of the environmental effects. Such an assessment, if required, shall identify, describe and assess in an appropriate manner, in the light of each individual case, the direct and indirect significant effects of a given project on various factors, including land, soil, water, air and climate. 1 Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial and livestock rearing emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) (Recast), OJ L 334, 17.12.2010, p. 17– 119, as amended by Directive (EU) 2024/1785 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 April 2024 OJ L, 15.7.2024. 2 Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, OJ L 26, 28.1.2012, p. 1–21, as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014, OJ L 124, 25.4.2014, p. 1–18. 3 Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives, OJ L 312, 22.11.2008, p. 3–30, as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/851 4 Article 23 of the Waste framework Directive. 5 https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/find-funding/funding-management-mode/2014-2020-europeanstructural-and-investment-funds_en. 6 as stated in the 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/. 7 Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/2010 of 12 November 2019 establishing the best available techniques (BAT) conclusions, under Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, for waste incineration, OJ L 312, 3.12.2019, p. 55–91.”
  Circular economy
• 2025-06-05 “P-002270/2025 Answer given by Ms Albuquerque on behalf of the European Commission The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the cornerstone of international justice and the fight against impunity. It holds perpetrators of the world’s gravest crimes to account and gives victims a voice. The Commission is closely monitoring the developments related to the imposition of the United States’ sanctions on the personnel of the ICC and continues to be in close contact with the ICC to monitor the impact of the sanctions on the Court’s operations. The Commission deeply regrets recourse to such actions and is ready to provide its full support, in coordination with Member States, to ensure the protection of the ICC and its personnel against external pressure or threats. The Commission is considering effective measures, as appropriate, to ensure the ICC’s operations remain unimpacted and its mandate fulfilled.”
  Support for International Criminal Court · EU-US relations
• 2025-04-02 “E-001368/2025 Answer given by Executive Vice-President Séjourné on behalf of the European Commission The stringency of the Euro standards pushed most advanced filter technologies to be commonly used for diesel vehicles 1 . To ensure continued performance of diesel particulate filters (DPFs), regeneration strategies are incorporated in vehicles with DPFs. Filter regeneration cleans the DPF by temporarily increasing exhaust temperatures to burn accumulated soot. While highway driving provides optimal conditions, regeneration can also be triggered during short-distance trips. All vehicles, including those circulating mostly in urban conditions, can therefore provide a good level of environmental protection throughout their lifetime, as required by the roadworthiness regulations. Current vehicle emission regulations 2 have been developed to reflect real-world driving conditions, including short-distance trips. Such short trips are common all across the EU, particularly in cities, considering that approximately 50% of urban car trips are shorter than 6 km 3 . Urban conditions play important role in the determination of real-driving emissions 4 . Directive (EU) 2024/1799 5 on common rules promoting the repair of goods aims at incentivising consumers to repair their defective goods and imposes an obligation on manufacturers of certain goods to offer repair services at a reasonable price. However, the problem at hand concerns the maintenance, i.e., activities to keep the DPFs in a condition where they are able to fulfil their intended purpose which are outside the scope of the Directive. 1 See particle numbers (‘PN’) and particle matters (‘PM’) limits requirements in Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards (Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2007 on type approval of motor vehicles with respect to emissions from light passenger and commercial vehicles (Euro 5 and Euro 6) and on access to vehicle repair and maintenance information - http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2007/715/oj) and in Euro 7 standards (Regulation (EU) 2024/1257 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 April 2024 on type-approval of motor vehicles and engines and of systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles, with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1257/oj). 2 Particularly above-mentioned Euro 6 Regulation and Euro 7 Regulation. 3 Vlachos, T., Bonnel, P., Weiss, M., Paffumi, E., Clairotte, M. et al., Including cold-start emissions in the RealDriving Emissions (RDE) test procedure: An assessment of cold-start frequencies and emission effects, Publications Office, 2017, https://doi.org/10.2760/70237. 4 See Annex IIIA to Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1151 of 1 June 2017 supplementing Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on type-approval of motor vehicles with respect to emissions from light passenger and commercial vehicles (Euro 5 and Euro 6) and on access to vehicle repair and maintenance information. 5 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202401799.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• 2025-02-05 “E-000512/2025 Answer given by Executive Vice-President Virkkunen on behalf of the European Commission DeepSeek’s present efficiency improvements in training and deployment, and the details reported in DeepSeek’s technical papers are not refuted by analysts 1 . However, the true efficiency gains are obscured by suggestions that those models are offered at a lower end-user price with smaller gross margins than competitors. Moreover, the reported cost-figures often disregard research and development, staff and server costs. One report estimates capital expenditure at USD 1.6 billion 2 , but the exact chip inventory is unclear. DeepSeek has made efficient use of its limited amount of artificial intelligence (AI) chips for model training, but analysts believe the same chip limitation poses further challenges for wide model deployment 2 . DeepSeek’s capabilities rival existing frontier models 3 . Small models may be very capable, but the next generation of frontier models still needs more computing power. The AI Continent Action Plan 4 will strengthen EU’s AI and supercomputing infrastructure with a network of AI factories and gigafactories, integrating vast computing resources to develop frontier models at unprecedented scale. It includes measures on data access, cloud, talent and skills, regulatory simplification and AI adoption in strategic sectors. The Commission will also set up the InvestAI Facility with the EIB Group to mobilize EUR 20 billion for AI infrastructure. The Commission understands distillation as a training method using the output of larger AI models to increase the performance of smaller models. From an intellectual property standpoint, however, it is still unclear if this technique raises copyright matters, since in principle the outputs generated by AI are not considered protectable subject matter under copyright. The Commission will closely follow developments in this regard. 1 The Commission has examined analyst reports, such as: ‘The Rise of DeepSeek: What the Headlines Miss’, RAND; ‘What went into training DeepSeek-R1?’, Epoch AI. 2 ‘DeepSeek Debates: Chinese Leadership On Cost, True Training Cost, Closed Model Margin Impacts’, SemiAnalysis. 3 ‘Chatbot Arena (formerly LMSYS): Free AI Chat to Compare & Test Best AI Chatbots’, LLM Leaderboard; ‘Compare GPT-4o, Llama 3, Mistral, Gemini & other models’, Artificial Analysis. 4 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ai-continent-action-plan”
  EU industrial funding
• “Thank you. President. Our digital future is not a game. This is not a race which we can win against China or the United States. We must construct a digital world where our societies and economies flourish according to European values, respecting privacy and consumer protection laws. The problem which we are facing is that Europe is too dependent on other continents, on big tech companies, foreign big tech companies for our essential digital infrastructure, which our citizens use every day. This necessitates an urgent recovery and investment in European digital ecosystems, with European techno tech companies working towards solutions alternative solutions at all levels, from mobile applications to computers to hardware to cloud infrastructure, we have the talent. However, we must enhance our capabilities to expect European capital markets to provide entrepreneurial capital. Based on Silicon Valley is a pipe dream. We must find our own way. If we are to take our digital sovereignty seriously, then we need a digital sovereignty fund corresponding to our ambitions, in tune with our values. It's useless talking about resilience when we are constantly dependent on foreign technology. So let us seriously invest today before tomorrow.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• “For them, the agreed ceasefire is giving them a shimmer of hope. But despite the outcome of this summit for peace, the killing has not stopped completely and there remains an urgent need for humanitarian support. Seeing the complete destruction of the very basic infrastructure in Gaza, the EU should do everything to make the lasting peace possible. And at the same time, make sure that those responsible for potential war crimes are brought to justice as soon as possible. This is what I expect from Europe as the defenders of the rule of law. Let me end on a positive note. The cost of living of Europeans. We support the call by the Council to build a true European Energy Union for clean and cheap energy in the long term. The cost of living of all EU citizens will benefit from a stable supply of an affordable, reliable and green energy, especially if we improve the internal market for this energy. We need to turn the green transition into something positive for the wallets of our voters to get them to buy into it. Thanks a lot.”
  Relations with Israel - Palestine
• “Thank you. Madam president, first of all, a message for the extreme rights abuse on children has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Unfortunately, abuse on children can even be done by straight persons, different sexual orientations. So let's not criticise only an important part of our society. As a father, this is an issue that really worries me. The fact that my daughter could be abused one day or another in this society where they are living. However, sexual abuse online is always increasing. Yesterday I got to know about a case an 11 year old girl who was threatened with pornographic material which was created through AI. Therefore, what are our responsibilities today for us because of the evolution and progress of technology? Therefore, I think that this directive should put more responsibility on the big techs so that they assume the responsibility for the material that is generated and promoted on their platforms. It is absolutely essential that in these cases which know no borders, we are more coordinated. It is vital that we continue our work on this directive. And as a European Parliament, we all speak with one voice. Thank you.”
  Digital platforms liability for harmful and illegal content
• “Thank you. Chair. What are the real factors that make Europe competitive? The fact that we are the cheapest continent. No. Europe is about high quality products produced by skilled workers under good working conditions. We can look at bureaucracy and red tape to reduce the burden for companies. That's not a bad thing, but we need to reject a rollback on our standards so we don't forsake our competitiveness first and foremost. It is not true that regulations make Europe less competitive. Our industry needs a reliable governance, government and predictable rules. This week I was shocked hearing Commissioner Virkkunen talking about a potential review of the digital rules that we worked on in the last years. We were talking in this plenary a month ago where we were saying that we were being attacked by other continents. This is something that is showing that the attacks are not just coming from the Trumps President Trump, but also from the inside. So it is essential to work on the best conditions for our workers, because the social compass makes us different from all others and more competitive. We need to work to have a directive on the on AI at the workplace and the directive on the right to disconnect as soon as possible. Let's improve our conditions.”
  EU rules on digital competition
• “I'm completely surprised that the far left and the political groups on the side of the parliament continue to defend their idol. Who's Trump in front? When we face these threats, threats not just on European legislation, but direct threat on one of our member states and their territorial integrity, I believe that if you really want to. Keep the name Patriots. First and foremost, you need to remain rigorous in front of those who attack European interests. This is something that clearly you're not doing.”
  Foreign interference in Europe
• “Thank you. Madam president. When Europe came to a standstill due to the pandemic and we in this House chose to make the investments needed, the European Fund to recover from Covid, made it possible for member states to invest billions in our future, particularly in green and digital transition. Nevertheless, we need to be critical when reviewing results. Despite the prescribed 20%, investments have to be dedicated to digital transformation. Europe is still dependent on foreign technology for our society, our economy, and even essential public services to function. When Draghi refers to competitiveness and letter to innovation, we must heed the call for investment in digital infrastructure. The RF results are a mixed bag and the digital divide between member states remains. That's why we urge the Commission to consider the lessons learned from this experience when planning a new programme for our digital future, a digital sovereignty fund that finances Europe made technology that make us resilient instrument.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• “The proposal for a digital omnibus comes at a very difficult time. I would even say at the worst time possible, US commissioner having already a difficult task to enforce our digital rules with the headwinds coming from the US, investigations on platforms are ongoing and need to be concluded to ensure that they respect our acquis. In this context, you are opening a discussion on the rules that are the very bedrock of our regulatory model. How we deal with the very personal data of our citizens. It comes to no surprise to read the news today from the US Secretary of Commerce, Lutnick, that he is saying that he is negotiating with you, Commissioner Noonan, on a rollback in digital protection in exchange for lower steel tariffs. We cannot barter away our value based approach to the online world. We have been very clear on that. This Parliament has voted and decided on our sovereign rules, and we cannot give the impression that we are willing to trade our citizens protection for the interests of us big tech companies. Simplification cannot can be good when it comes to streamlining different data loss. But here we are not speaking of simplification, here we are speaking of Deregulation that is going against what we have worked for.”
  EU-US data transfers
• “Thank you. President. Vice president of the Commission. I do not envy you or all those that are in charge of negotiating with this US administration. It is impossible to work with an erratic and reliable President Trump. One minute he announces trade tariffs, and the next day he postpones them, only to come back as a threat the following day. This is not how trade relations work. At the end of the day, our citizens will foot the bill because of rising consumer prices. There is a trade imbalance with the US, not only in goods but also in services. And Europe is far too reliant on US big tech. The last thing we need is to water down our digital rules, like the Digital Markets Act, in order to please our counterparts. We should not fall into this trap. If they want to do business in our market of 500 million consumers, then they only need to play by our rules. Our values based approach to the digital transformation is not a bargaining chip in this negotiation. If Apple, Google Meet our X do not respect the law. They should be fined. We expect the Commission to not hold back on enforcing our digital rules in the wake of Thumbsticks.”
  EU-US trade relations
• “Thank you. President. President of the Commission. A roof above your head is the basis for any decent life, and a basic right that should be enjoyed by each and every citizen. But how can you find a place to call home when housing prices spike and rents explode? This is not an issue of one European member state. The housing crisis has become a cross-cutting European problem from Italy to Ireland, from the Netherlands to the Czech Republic. More and more citizens cannot afford housing. And this is getting very specific segments within our society, specifically our young people, single parents, but also our elderly. There is poverty and homelessness is on the rise. It's time for the EU to act on this obligation, which is also found in the charter, to recognize and respect that Europeans collect resources, need housing assistance because for whom the market has failed to deliver, they are looking up to us to find a concrete solution. So let me welcome the fact that the Council agrees with my political group. The Commission needs to swiftly present an ambitious and comprehensive plan for affordable housing. We have made this one of our priorities with the introduction of a commissioner responsible for housing, and we have full confidence in Dan Jorgensen that he will deliver. But while we focus on worries of our citizens to find a house, we cannot forget about those in Gaza whose houses do no longer exist because they have been deliberately destroyed.”
  EU housing policy
• “Thanks a lot chair and welcome Vice President. Last week in Davos. And I'm going to quote you said that tax sovereignty means that we are not dependent on one country or company for critical technology and always choose with whom we should do business. And here we agree Perfectly with what you have rightly pointed out, but unfortunately, we are not in a position, uh, and that is one of the biggest challenges that we are facing as a European Union to operate without the cloud infrastructure or the operating software system systems, to name a few, which are provided by US Big tech. So my first question, what are your intentions to speed up the process to become more digitally, digitally resilient now with also the current geopolitical situation? And is the Commission making an analysis of the main liabilities of the EU tech ecosystem? And could you share this information with us? And my second question relates to DNA with a consumer perspective. Uh, after the Digital Networks Act that you proposed last week, first of all, let me point out that competition and choice of services in telecom market is very important for consumers and coming from a small member state, the smallest one. I already see that with the limited offers available, there is more uncompetitive behaviour of operators and just bad service for high prices is a real threat for our consumers. How do you think that we can best safeguard the interests of European consumers within the framework of the new DNA? Thanks a lot.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• “Thank you. For our voters, their holiday is the highlight of the year, something they have to save money for, something that is planned well in advance. Something to look forward to. But things can go wrong and the holiday can be spoilt by a natural disaster. A pandemic that leads to travel restrictions, an armed conflict, something which is also unfolding right now in the Middle East, which Disrupt disrupts our travel industry. And then there is the off chance that you that your travel organizer goes bankrupt after you did your own payment or worse, while you are still on holiday and still need to come back home. This is no fiction, but unfortunately, something that happened to thousands of European travellers affected by the Thomas Cook bankruptcy. And after the Covid 19 pandemic, we know what a medical emergency could once again resurface in the future and obviously face us again with similar problems that we face in the travel industry in this world of uncertainty. We have one travel product that offers the best consumer protection and that is EU law. The Package Travel Directive aims to ensure that you can book your package holiday with the peace of mind, and that is also why we are here in this Parliament and we have adopted a number of resolutions that called on the commission to draw the lessons learned from the past crisis.”
  EU Package Travel Directive: traveller protection vs business flexibility
• “The single European single market is the second biggest market 450 million consumers that depend on our decisions, 450 million consumers that today are waiting for the European Commission to take action as quickly as possible in order to make sure that the pressure suffered by consumers are because of the current political crisis, because of the war in the Middle East. We need to address these issues urgently. Today, energy prices are threefold, have increased threefold. We still have no answers for our consumers and therefore it is important that we give them a solution. The freedom of services on the on the EU level. Today we still have 60% of obstacles when it comes to the service market. Consumers are still paying 15% more in the prices, and therefore it is crucial more than ever to increase our resilience in order to remain competitive and to make sure that strategic sectors such as these are strengthened to make sure that consumers remain protected.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Thank you president. We can continue to function. Can we continue to function if the internet stops working? A critical infrastructure is very important. Like the provision of electricity and water. Our infrastructure depends on the internet to function properly. Even our hospitals, our airports. To transport passengers we have to be protected from cyber attacks. Unfortunately, this is a real attack in an unstable world. I am glad to see that the commission is addressing this threat with the Cybersecurity Act. We have to expand the scope of beyond ICT and look at all the elements that can be affected in our digitalised society. The agency Enisa should have a very important role to have an action plan around the European Union. We should have common standards on the relevant sectors. This hybrid threat will not wait for us and the companies and the citizens expect European Union to help them be protected forever.”
  Scope of EU cybersecurity obligations
• “First of all, I would like to speak about the disrespect shown today in front of this house when we were not treated and it was stated clearly by the Commission as has not high level enough. And I ask the commission, what is high level enough for the president of the Commission alone?”
  Von der Leyen
• “The vice president, our democracy thrives by transparency. We need to shed light on all the special interests and also lobbies that try to influence our policy. And this goes beyond third country interests. It's as much about corporate lobbies and all legitimate civil society organizations that provide us with useful advice. Our voters want to know who tries to influence us. Transparency builds trust that we can act on our conviction. We are here to serve the European people and no specific interest of anybody. This is why we, as a CND, propose to turn this directive into a general transparency Act. But our amendments unfortunately did not get the support of right wing groups. Instead, we are left with a very targeted proposal that will deal with the internal market for third country interest representation. And this is good because we need to open our eyes to the fact that there are campaigns by foreign powers to influence European and Member states in their favour. At the same time, we need to make sure we prevent a chilling effect on civil society for which several UN special rapporteurs have warned us. That is why only services of economy, which are economic in nature are and should be in the scope of this directive. It is in line with the legal basis of the functioning of the internal market. There is no carve out for NGOs, and they will be covered only insofar as they deliver commercial services. But all non-profit activities executed based on charity grants and subsidies will not be covered. On top of this, we have clear additional safeguards for activities in the interest of common good. The supervisor will enforce this directive, will be totally independent, and will limit the sanctions only to administrative fines, excluding potential criminal sanctions. The text is one that my group can support. It has the right balance between transparency needed on foreign influence in our democracy, and the need to protect and support civil society that is doing democratic and legitimate work on policy from stigma or even prosecution. Thanks a lot.”
  Transparency requirements for interest groups
• “The world online nowadays is not a safe place for our children, primarily because of the model which is followed by our platforms, which mean that our children are for too long hours on their smartphones or on their tablets. In certain cases, the algorithms are pushing even content which is which, which is addictive, highly addictive, and harms children. It has devastating effects on them. Cyberbullying is increasing, constantly increasing, and also includes a false fake, fake profiles or images of our children. We had a number of cases in Europe which actually led to suicide, and the biggest risk is that of online grooming and the sexual abuse on our children. As a parent, this is really worrying and it keeps me awake at night. I'm not alone in being so worried. All our citizens know that something is intrinsically wrong here. The large technological platforms know all about this. We heard about whistleblowers who worked with them, but they don't care and they don't want to act. They are making enormous profits from on the backs of our children. And this is not an accident or a mistake. It is actually a part of the way that social media works.”
  Safety features & content control for child protection online
• “Today the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is disastrous. We have seen in the last few hours that a mass grave was discovered that included also some humanitarian workers. This is not just a tragedy, but this is a flagrant. Disrespect of humanitarian rules. We need to intervene to stop this genocide and call out those that are responsible for these atrocities. We have the president of the Commission and the Council, and I do appeal to them to take action immediately so that we can stop the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel to impose sanctions and to initiate the reconstruction plan in Gaza. These people have been suffering for ten for a lot of years. This is a very important test for us, and the European Union needs to take action now to respect international law. Thank you.”
  Relations with Israel - Palestine
• “So first of all, thanks, Commissioner, for being with us today. Would also like to chip in when it comes to the General Data Protection Regulation. It was reported in Politico that there is a proposal for review, as you rightly also pointed out, of the GDPR coming out in the next couple of weeks. And therefore, to come to the point, I have three very specific questions. First of all, could you tell us more about the timeline, the approach and the direction of the GDPR review? My second question is it true that you are considering a threshold for applying the GDPR that will exclude smaller companies? And my third question, what will be your effort to reduce the impact of big US corporate lobby on the legislative process in favor of civil society and human rights, and human and data rights experts? Thanks a lot.”
  GDPR
• “Thanks a lot chair. Dear colleagues, first of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity also to update you on the progress when it comes to the trilogues on the Package Travel Directive. I believe that we have been having a good start under the Danish Presidency presidency Decadency and on which they are hoping to conclude as co-legislators. This ambitious aim that we support, and we have been working for intensively together to make good progress on different aspects when it comes to consumer Protection directive. On the 24th of September, we had our first trialogue and we went over the different positions when it comes to council and also when it comes to Parliament, and we have seen and assessed where we can bridge the gaps. In the meantime, there have been numerous technical meetings between the negotiating team and also the presidency to clarify and deal with technical aspects of the draft directive. We are aiming to conclude a deal in the second trilogue on 11th of November, but if we can do so will depend on the progress that we can make in the coming weeks. From my side, there is and will be a constructive approach to find common ground, as long as the text will strengthen and not weaken the protection of travellers. I want to thank my colleagues, the shadow rapporteurs, on this file, for their hard work and also the secretariat, our advisers, political group, advisers for their hard work and hope to continue to have good cooperation in the final stretch of this legislative procedure. Thanks a lot.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden
• “Thank you. Chair. And before I conclude, I would like to thank first and foremost all the shadows that have collaborated to find consensus on this very important, important file. We have different political opinions, a different political background. We come from different member states with very different realities, with specific interests, specific practices also in the tourism industry. But still we come together and struck a balance between what we have heard from travel agents and also what we have heard from consumer associations and directly from consumers, to find the right balance between these different interests. And in this delicate exercise, which we will take forward towards the Member States in the trilogue negotiations, we are hoping to ultimately find the right balance to increase consumer protection, but at the same time also strengthen Our tourist operators, operators and therefore we want to keep vouchers voluntary. And this is an important line for my political group. We want to keep the protection and insurance, insurance of travel organisers in case of bankruptcy in place. Let us see the positive in this file that can make the difference for holidaymakers around Europe. And I count on your support in the vote that we have tomorrow. Thanks a lot.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden
• “Prime Minister. There couldn't have been a better time for Denmark, one of the most digitalised countries. It takes the lead. The dispute with Greenland has shown that for Denmark and the rest of the EU, we are too dependent on American technology and therefore we need to take concrete steps to strengthen our sovereignty. When it comes to technology, competitiveness in the digital era requires Europe to build up its capacity in this area. Innovation can only come along with investment and alternative solutions. We need alternatives that break down the financial and unethical financial models of harvesting and profiling. It is only with this kind of investment that we can overcome the challenges that our youth are facing, and limit excessive use of mobile devices. We need a strategy for start ups, for scale ups, for infrastructure, for technology in order to strengthen ecosystems, digital ecosystems. I am confident that we can do this together with Denmark as the presidency. Thank you.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• “Yes. Having balanced Recommendation and avoiding extra burden on our businesses is something that we are not against. But on this side of the room now, today is attacking the Green Deal. And yesterday they were pleading the European Commission, like we did, to provide aid to those member states that face natural disasters in the past weeks. We this shows how much we need to continue investing in our environment that is sustainable for us, for our children, and for the world in general.”
  Climate efforts
• “Dear Commissioner, dear colleagues. It is the worst possible holiday experience being stranded in a far off place as a traveller because your travel organiser went bankrupt. Luckily, we have a strong EU consumer protection in place that makes sure that travel organisers and their consumers are insured. Still, we as Parliament asked for an update of the rules for package travel. We need to learn from the experiences from the default of Thomas Cook, which affected hundreds of thousands of European holidaymakers. In addition, the consequences of travel restrictions during the Covid pandemic made it necessary to update our rules on what will happen in extraordinary circumstances and also to regulate the use of vouchers. We have to thank first and foremost the European Commission for a very ambitious proposal, which I took as a firm basis in my work as rapporteur for me personally and also for my political family. The interests of our citizens, of our consumers and strengthening their protection is the starting point and number one priority coming from Malta, one of Europe's finest holiday destinations. The tourism industry is something which is very close to home. Many travel agencies that organise these packages are small, privately owned businesses and we want to support them and therefore we needed to find a very balanced approach. It is my conviction that we achieved such a balance in the report that we will be voting tomorrow.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden
• “Thank you. Child abuse is the most heinous crime possible. We were here yesterday in this plenary and we heard Jackie Fox talking about abuse, even sexual abuse generated by AI that her daughter had to suffer, and it led to her daughter committing suicide. And therefore, we have responsibility to ensure strong legislation to ensure that this grooming that is becoming widespread, even on platforms that parents might believe are innocent, such as childhood games, children's games can even lead to sexual abuse, child sexual abuse and therefore we must ensure we have that. We have a balanced legislation that fights sexual abuse, however, strikes a balance to ensure that we protect our privacy, all our citizens privacy. And we have to end encryption, which is a we have to preserve end to end encryption, which ensures that our citizens privacy is kept. Surveillance on our citizens is not the answer. We have to place responsibility on companies that have to ensure that this abuse is removed. We see that competent member states cannot carry this additional burden that they cannot keep up with. We have all the instruments to do this. We can ensure that we can provide an online environment that is secure for our children. Thank you.”
  Privacy & detection of online child abuse
• “Thank you very much, Mr. President, Vice-President of the Commission. It is very important for us all that when we speak about the European Single Market, we keep in our mind, first and foremost the the interests of European consumers. And that is why, as the group of Sad, we have always pushed forward the idea, especially in discussions on the Act of Digital Services Act, that we would have a level playing field that would be legal on offline, would be as well legal online. But for us to have a level playing field in the European Union, we are not going to do this by more burdens on our consumers, those most vulnerable. And I am referring here to the thoughts of the European Commission so that consumers and I would say the most vulnerable consumers, those that cannot afford, who choose to buy online out beyond the European Union, will have additional burdens. Therefore, these additional burdens are not the solution. The solution is that distributors producers beyond the European Union, which are using platforms to target directly European consumers, would have the same rules which are applicable to the distributors and producers, which are European, and therefore we would be able to protect the interests of our consumers. Thus, the safety, the the security and protection of the most vulnerable within our society, but also would be able to protect the interests of European industry and not to burden in an And an exceptional manner excessively. Our consumers, this is not the solution. Thank you very much.”
  EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
• “The call to the Commission to strengthen the EU legal framework, to comprehensively address influencer marketing, and to consider introducing personal liability for senior management in cases of serious and persistent non legal compliance. The welcome to the Commission's announcement about the creation of a group of experts for the protection of minors online. The urgent need to ensure effective and coherent implementation, enforcement and consistency consistency of EU legislation with a special focus on the protection of minors online. The encouragement to the Commission to propose a CPC regulation review and bestow the Commission with centralised investigative and enforcement powers across the EU in cases of widespread infringement of EU consumer laws. A signal on the lack of comprehensive legislation as regards to video games, and also urging the Commission to prohibit elements such as loot boxes and other randomized content in games that are intended to minors. Calls on the Commission also to address the risks linked to in-app currencies. Microtransactions. Pay to progress and pay to win mechanisms that are accessible to minors. I hope that this this text will be supported today by all the political groups, and that we can still work on this very crucial issue of protecting our minors online. Thanks a lot.”
  Safety features & content control for child protection online
• “Thank you president. In a time where protectionism is on the increase around us, we are also experiencing the effects of protectionism and the value of the market as led by the United States. We should open our eyes. We should look at reality and also appreciate the value of the integrated single market, eliminate duties between one state and the other. We also need to regulate our standards and in small member states like Malta we appreciate the value even more because we import a lot of products. However, at the end of the day, we need to appreciate, we need to ensure that single, the single market is equal for everyone, especially for smaller member states like Malta, Luxembourg. When comparing the prices between essential products, prices between in Malta and other countries, this is also relevant for medicinal products where in Malta we experienced big problems with the list of medication available in our country. Therefore, we also need to look at the availability of medicinal product especially for our patients who are the most vulnerable people in our society. Therefore, we need to strengthen the single market. We need to ensure we have a level playing field in terms of prices but we also have to expand the single market for medicinal products to ensure that we give patients the best service possible.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Thanks a lot, chair. Dear colleagues, today we will vote on the outcome outcome of the trilogue negotiations on the update of the Package Travel Directive. I believe that we have found a good compromise, balanced result, good for consumers and also very good for the travel industry. Basically, we are implementing the lessons learned from Covid pandemic with clear rules that travellers when they cannot travel due to extraordinary circumstances. We are also making rules for vouchers that stay voluntarily voluntary for consumers to accept. And as an important aspect of consumer protection, we are introducing also a complaint handling mechanism with mandatory deadlines to get a reasoned reply from the travel organiser. This result would not have been possible without the support and work of my colleagues. Let me start by, first of all, thanking the shadow rapporteurs of different political groups, always for the very constructive approach that they took. Also, I would like to give some credit to the Danish presidency, with whom we had a very good cooperation which made the trialogue as efficient as possible. Let us not forget also the European Commission that put forward in front of us a very ambitious, consumer friendly proposal, which we took as a basis for our negotiations. And finally, thanks for our Imco Secretariat.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden
• “It can end up being a pretext of a Hungarian foreign agent law, and therefore it is. It is something where I don't want to put my name on. That is why our group cannot agree with the proposal in its current form, and we have been asking, asking relentlessly to enlarge the scope to include all interest, representation or lobbying, as is the case in some member states already. Another key concern for us are sanctions. We oppose giving the flexibility to member states to decide on sanctions. We consider that the directive should limit the sanctions to administrative fines. The proposed directive should not be used by some member states to impose criminal sanctions on organisations, including civil society. This is not acceptable in our democracies. We have made very clear in our negotiations that these are big red lines for our political family. The SNP is willing to continue to negotiate on the scope and find the compromise, but we require the rapporteur to engage with us on this matter. It looks like the EPP is turning to extreme right for support on an anti civil society proposal. This goes against the pro-democratic platform that supported miss von der Leyen. Therefore, I sincerely urge you to reconsider your position.”
  Regulation of NGOs in Europe
• “Thank you. Chair. Images of our children are not safe. No longer safe on the internet. Can you imagine the images of your own children used to create abuse material on children? This is horrific, but it is a reality that several parents are facing around the EU. Women who are already facing a toxic environment and online toxic environment, seeing their own images being abused to generate pornographic material. Let's be honest, this should not be allowed under EU rules and Elon Musk should not continue acting without impunity. It's time to have rigorous enforcement of the EU digital rules so that we can undermine the intentions of oligarchs. European Commission has forced the investigation and has kept the safeguarding of these documents used by Grock. However, we need to make sure that these investigations lead to concrete results. This is not something that could be postponed so as to take action. We need to remember that it's important to safeguard strong legislation that we already have. We should not deregulate. That could deregulate such rules, which could undermine our women and our children, and therefore we should pay attention and take care of the rules that we decide on and the simplification that we we take. Thank you so.”
  Digital platforms liability for harmful and illegal content
• “Today, I'd like to speak about what we need from the European Commission and what we need as a European Parliament, and what is missing from this programme that you presented to me today. First of all, your initiatives are completely missing the point. First of all, we're here in this plenary speaking about the importance of protecting a digital regulation at European level and what happened two days ago, European Commissioner for Hudon said. That the I the DMA that this is what the European Commission is going to be focusing on, things we've already approved in the previous legislator. What about other legislation, such as the right to disconnect the European social model? I find all of this completely lacking from your plan. The right to disconnect was approved about four years ago in this Parliament. We had the Charter of Digital Rights presented to the European Commission. We heard this in the in the state of the Union speech. But once again, I see that this is missing. And this shows that the European Commission is completely disconnected from our citizens. Thank you.”
  Regulation of teleworking labour conditions
• “I think that today we have sent out a message as regards the strengthening of our citizens. So as a Parliament, we should also be united and also as regards the different opinions emerging from the different groups. Whenever we speak about consumer protection, especially when these are traveling in this reality of the geopolitical crisis that we are facing. Having been through the world pandemic, all these are problems that can disrupt the our citizens plans when they are away from home. When they are, maybe they have been saving for months on end and they find themselves in circumstances and they they remain stranded. Therefore, the vote that we will be taking tomorrow, we're facing one of the. Rules that during this legislature we. If we manage to vote in favor. It will be a very clear message because if we want the European project, we want it to remain relevant in the people's opinions because all in all, the citizens will appreciate our work. In order for this to happen, we need to address their priorities, their Um, problems. We need to address them. And Thomas Cook, when when this company went bankrupt, the Covid 19 pandemic, all these brought about disasters in this tourism sectors. This is why we need to act. And tomorrow we'll be voting on legislation that will be protecting our consumers, our consumers. But it is also respecting the tourism industry. The interesting I've seen during the negotiations in the European Parliament and with the council and the Commission, we really paid attention so as not to burden it unnecessarily. So I thank everybody, all those people who were involved, the shadow rapporteurs, but most especially the European Commission, which was really steadfast in the work.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden
• “They they keep keeps you attentive, keeps your eyes on the screen. This is the secret of the success of every platform. And if they do not act, we must act. And that is why this report is so important. The Commission must carry out its keep to its promise to address this, this question and this crisis with urgency, with the group of experts that had to present present solutions to the end of this, this year. Every year we're losing. This is this. This has a high price on the generation which is growing up. The Parliament must take a position. We want a minimum age for for our children to have access to media, social. We need a verification of age. And not only our children are pressed yes or no that they have, they are over the minimum age. We want to address the addictive design of these platforms. We need more just social digital justice, where we have limits on practices that platforms use as strong and safe online environment for our children. Thank you.”
  Age restrictions on children's access to social media
• “Vouchers should and will remain voluntary for travellers. The vouchers should be valid for a maximum period of 12 months, and travellers must be refunded in full or partially for unused vouchers. Voucher holders must be free to spend the vouchers on any travel service offered by the organisers. And vouchers will be covered also by insolvency guarantees. In the case of a trader's insolvency, travellers should be refunded within six months, but shorter deadlines may be established by Member states if unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances arise at the travel destination or departure point of a trip of affected journey journeys. There will be the right to cancel the trip without any penalties with a full refund. As a rapporteur, I fought for a strong consumer rights in the revision of the Package Travel Directive and with the help of my colleagues, the shadows and different political groups whom I would like to thank for their cooperation, we achieved a lot. Fast and automatic cash refunds remain the rule, not vouchers. Future crises may not shift financial risks onto families, which we ensure through robust insolvency protection and better EU coordination. I look forward for the debate and hope that tomorrow I can count on your support. Thanks a lot.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden
• “The report is also calling for a harmonised European digital age limit of 13 years old, for which no miner can access social media platforms. A call on the commission to develop guidance for micro and small enterprises to ensure high level of protection of young people online, and also to make risk assessment more robust by specifying the relevant information, data and also assessments. A call on Member States to fund free mental health hotlines. Peer support initiatives, and also training for teachers and health professionals on the risks associated with digital issues. And finally, a call on the importance of digital literacy and of empowering parents and also guardians to best protect their children online by giving them the knowledge and also the information they need in a way that is easy for them to understand in order to make informed choices. Laura ends by hoping that we can reach a very rich and thoughtful discussions on this topic on the protection of minors, which is also a priority for our political group. Cindy, thanks a lot.”
  Age restrictions on children's access to social media
• “Maria is a nine year old girl who is in hospital in Malta after last year she tried to commit suicide. She's nine years old, a little girl. She did this after experiencing self-harm online. Those are the challenges that we face as a European Parliament, as the Commission. Challenges where we see that we could avoid these tragedies. Suicide is the greatest reason for death amongst young people. It is therefore more urgent than ever before that especially once tomorrow we are celebrating the World Mental Health Day. So it is extremely important that we not only speak but we really take action and that we take real action by controlling the way these platforms work. We control access that children and our young people have to these platforms which are high risk which could lead to great problems in the mental health. Let us be courageous here and use this word health, mental health day not only tomorrow but throughout the year. Thank you.”
  Safety features & content control for child protection online
• “Thanks a lot. Nowadays, most of us get our news from social media. In Malta, around 80% do so. And while healthy democracies rely on quality journalism for objective information. This is not how our platforms are working. Big tech made a business out of polarization. Their algorithms give preference to interaction. It's what keeps attention and sells more advertisement for them. We know it and the Digital Services Act was made to tackle it. High time to enforce our rules and stop the toxic recommender systems that are making us addictive and push extreme content on our citizens timelines. Things have gotten worse with Elon Musk running X as a passion project, openly railing against the EU and supporting extreme right parties in election campaigns. This is no longer a neutral space for public debate. X has become a propaganda machine aimed at undermining our European Community. €120 million fine is a start, but not enough to make Musk respect our digital acquis. Bold action is needed to force him to comply and other platforms are not much better. On Facebook and Instagram, there are signs of shadowbanning. If a news outlet or a politician publishes on the genocide in Gaza, their content is demoted and their reach diminished. It is how it should work in a democracy that a company like meta, a billionaire like Zuckerberg, decides what Europeans here, what Europeans see online. Yesterday it was Gaza. This week it was the LGBTI pages that were removed. And tomorrow, what? And who will be the next target of the algorithmic ban? At the same time, both networks of fake profiles are given free space to influence our public debate, even in election periods. And while the problem grows, metas new policies since the start of the Trump administration is to drastically reduce content moderation, allowing more of the bad stuff on their platforms while undermining our democracies in the process. When do we stop? The limit of what can we. What we can take has long been reached, and we expect the Commission to act as soon as possible. Thanks a lot.”
  Recommender systems
• “Thank you. President. In Europe, we cannot accept that children are raised in poverty. Financial stress within a family, not enough food in their school bags. How can you expect that these children reach their fullest potential? This is unfair. This is something that we can prevent. Thanks to the children's guarantee. If the commission needs inspiration, you can look at the Maltese model we have Taught about our vulnerable groups. An inclusive model that works for everyone. Because of our social policy. Within ten years, we have reduced poverty drastically against other tendencies in other countries. Poverty in Malta is at its lowest in Malta's history. And this is not a coincidence or a miracle. This is the fruit of our political choices. From 1.3 million on social expense, it is now 3 million this year. All of this investment is allowing us to live in a more socially just society, and this is what we need to do. On a European level, let's invest in our children to beat poverty forever.”
  Child poverty policy
• “So thanks a lot, chair. As you have rightly said, I will be speaking on behalf of Laura Ballarin, the rapporteur on the Imco opinion on the report on the impact of social media and the online environment of young people. First of all, I would I would like to thank the Secretariat, our great team, as well as all the political groups and members that have contributed, contributed to this very important opinion. As you might remember, the deadline for amendments was last October, 17th of October, to be precise. After careful consideration of all the contributions from different political groups, uh, negotiations will be starting this Wednesday at technical level. Laura thinks that the text has been improved, and some important and key elements have been added to the draft opinion as the following. First of all, the report stresses also the need for a common EU solution providing reliable, effective, accurate, robust, non-intrusive, non-intrusive and privacy respecting age verification or age assurance mechanisms in order to ensure equal level of protection of minors across the EU, and also parental control tools that respect privacy and also respect children's rights. These mechanisms should be a key element, but also are a part of a more modern strategy on the protection of minors online. A call for the establishment of a harmonised European digital age limit for 16 years old, as the default threshold under which access to online social media platforms should not be allowed unless parents or guardians have authorised their children otherwise, and calls also for the age limit to apply to video sharing platforms and also AI companies which present risks to minors.”
  Age restrictions on children's access to social media
• “No. First of all, I would like to thank all, um, for achieving, I believe, a very good balance between protecting consumer rights, but at the same time, at the same time also protecting SMEs and this very important industry when it comes to travel agents, which is a very important industry made up of, um, small, small business. I think that when it comes to increasing the rights of consumers, we have achieved a lot here from the issue of, um, full refunds and vouchers to the complaint handling mechanism, which is an add on to the original Commission proposal and also having a strong definition when it comes to what constitutes a package travel. So it's a very good balance. And I urge everyone to support, um, this, this very good compromise that we have.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden
• “One of the sectors that is most talked about by our consumers because of the problems they face, is the sector of telecommunication. In every reform you present, we must ensure that the elements of competition must be at the centre of our work. Therefore, it is crucial that no new regulation that we propose, no reforms that are put forward, hinder this competition. Instead, we should have main regulators that work in a European sector that is more hindered when we're when we're talking about different sectors in Malta. We only have three main companies that work in a small member state. Despite this, they face lots of problems when it comes to consumer protection. This means that the more companies we have that are competing with each other small companies, medium companies, this will benefit the consumers at the end.”
  EU telecom regulation: consolidation vs competition (Digital Networks Act / DNA)
• “Your proposal reduces the scope of personal data and thereby reduces the level of protection of the GDPR. Do we really want to allow processing of sensitive personal data for the development of AI systems based on legitimate interests? Do we want to give an exemption to the processing of biometric data, where it is necessary to confirm the identity of a person? I am extremely worried that these changes can lead to massification of data tracking and lower protection for Europeans. We as Europeans have been global leaders in setting the rules and standing up against all the powerful hyperscalers and their owners. Do you want to squander this reputation? How can we water down the ache that we have voted only a couple of years ago? We should be confident about our approach and believe that we can support a new tech ecosystem based on privacy, competition and European values. Today, it looks that we are questioning ourselves. We need to show strength instead of weakness. We need to be resolute and make tech companies accountable.”
  GDPR
• “Now that we are at the end of this legislative procedure, it is a good moment. First of all, to thank the European Commission for its very ambitious proposal that helped me as a rapporteur. Not everything made it to the final text like the proposed limit on prepayments. Even though this proposal made sense from a consumer protection perspective, there was no majority in this House because of the economic importance of tourism sector and because we want to keep this product attractive to businesses to offer. We must balance out different legitimate interests which enhance the rights of consumers. And I believe that we succeeded in this effort. To name some things on which we will be voting tomorrow. First of all, we will clarify which packages are covered by the directive, and we Grant protection to travellers who purchase from separate traders through linked online booking processes. We will improve information to travellers because the new rules clarify the information that you must receive before, during and after the trip. We introduce a mandatory complaint mechanism which which is harmonising the deadlines. Each organiser must set up a complaint handling mechanism. Confirm the receipt of the complaint within seven days and give a reasoned opinion within 60 days. New rules for vouchers as a response to organisers practices to offer more protection to travellers when choosing and using vouchers.”
  EU Package Travel Directive: traveller protection vs business flexibility
• “When we discuss the state of our union, we cannot ignore the state of the world. Our voters ask you to put a stop to the killing in Gaza. To there cannot. To stop and to halt the trade with Israel. We cannot have business as usual with a country that commit genocide. It goes against our treaties. The European citizens are also worried about what comes from a derailed president in the white House. And today we had complete silence. We cannot be blackmailed into watering down our digital laws over transatlantic trade tensions. Following the statements made by the US regarding the DSA, you should activate the anti coercion mechanism as soon as possible. Europe has to become more. It needs to become stronger and invest in its public digital infrastructure. We are 80% dependent on foreign technology. Your our priority should be to reduce this number by the end of the digital decade in 2030. We need the right to disconnect. Uh, we also need better accommodation. Uh, accommodation as soon as possible.”
  Relations with Israel - Palestine
• “Thanks a lot. And also thanks to the rapporteur and colleagues who are working on this very important Topic. The topic of interest representation, which is something which can strengthen our democracies. It can give us more arguments to ultimately reach a best policy result. But we all know that there is a shadow side when it comes to this discussion. The fierce lobbying on behalf of private actors, and also in this case of third countries who in the majority of cases have very deep pockets. And this is why, as a political group, we are totally in favour of transparency. Our voters need to know on which topic are we speaking and who with. Who are we speaking? Um, and we do it here in the European Parliament openly with a transparency register. As you know from the amendments, our group was very constructive. From the very start. We submitted more than 70 amendments to strengthen the text. But our main concern, together with the UN, together with civil society in Europe, is that of the scope. We oppose targeting only third country interest representation. As we are seeing in the current text, this would be affecting NGOs and would be stigmatising our NGOs. It is not a good sign if you would have stayed active will be compared to a foreign agent law. This is not the way forward for Europe. This proposed directive could be instrumentalized also by some member states, where the rule of law is under pressure to weaken and even attack our civil society.”
  Transparency requirements for interest groups
• “Thank you. Chair. Vice president of the commission. In every democracy, rules have to apply fairly and equally for everyone, without any exception. We know that the European sovereignty is under threat within the digital world. After the big commitment and efforts from this House in the previous mandate in order to approve legislation which was first of its kind and has put EU at the forefront thanks to the DMA and the AI act, we have now reached the point to go to the next step and we ensure enforcement a just enforcement. It is only in this way that citizens can bear the fruit of this legislation that we have worked so hard for, and it is only when meta, Apple and others start respecting our rules that we can reach our aims. They need to do this by changing their traditional business model, they have changed very little. Up, up till now and they were not willing to do so. This is not only a question of imposing fines, it is a situation where the European Commission should show that it is against how these platforms are operating, and the aim is to protect our laws, our democracy. And despite the attacks by President Trump, sanctions should be imposed without any hesitations. This these threats, these mechanisms should be enabled in order to face the situation and therefore even the digital omnibus. We have to be very careful. It shouldn't be an exercise which takes us back to the past, and, uh, we move away from implementing our regulations. This is an unprecedented situation. We have, uh, we've been experiencing digital attacks in airports and other systems and vulnerable systems. It is of utmost importance to reduce our dependence on technology, hailing, uh, beyond our continent. And therefore, it is important that we strengthen our own sovereignty.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• “Saliba. Um, welcome, ministers, on behalf of the S&D Group, welcome to the European Parliament. And we wish you a lot of luck during your presidency. During these upcoming six months, you will definitely need it. As the European Union and the world are going through very turbulent times. To quote the speech of the Canadian of Canadian Mark Carney last week during Davos, the rules based international order right now is experiencing a rupture, not a transition. And this is really bad news for the European Union since we are a community based on rules order and this will definitely pose direct challenges to our internal market. I am glad to see that your presidency programme is putting autonomy of Europe at the very centre stage, and this is really important at this very juncture. The overreliance that we have when it comes to foreign technologies, for the very basic functions of our society and also of our economy, is becoming a liability for the European Union in the current geopolitical situation that we are facing. We would therefore like to ask you what specific actions will you foresee to work on Europe's digital sovereignty during these upcoming six months? There are several sectors in which we need to regain digital leadership build for a part like in when it comes to the cloud infrastructure, when it comes to cyber security. Um, and this is basically a question of regaining control and securing the basis of our digital infrastructure from potential foreign interference.”
  EU digital & tech sovereignty
• “Europe should not compete at deregulation. Europe should not compete for the lowest price. We compete on quality. We should compete on fairness. Our rules make a fair internal market. When I look at your work plan, I am hopeful that we can make progress. Meaningful legislation that makes a difference in the lives of our citizens. The Quality Jobs Act should ensure that workers are protected against the strains of digital digitalisation is putting on them. We have to regulate the use of algorithmic management that monitors our workers, and we should introduce the right to disconnect. Limits and safeguards are needed to protect the mental health of workers on and off duty. The announced Digital Fairness Act can fill the gaps of digital consumer protection. Online addiction to social media is a real hazard to our young people and to all of us, frankly. Platforms are designed to be addictive. This is their business model. If there is one legislator that can put an end to addictive design, it is the European Union. My expectations are high, but you can count on our support where necessary, with amendments on these acts to make a better difference in the lives of our citizens. Thanks a lot.”
  Platform workers
• “Thank you. President. The European Single Market is one of the most important elements in the European project for our citizens. However, it's also important to ensure that this market continues evolving. To see that it incorporates the realities of the smaller member states and that these rules also work to their advantage. There are also particular realities for countries like Malta, for instance. In particular, because of the increase of prices. The problem of inflation for the most basic products in our market, we have to be more flexible with our rules to ensure that smaller member states and islands still benefit from this right of freedom of movement of products and services to ensure that they are on the same level of larger member states. It's also essential to see that we have stricter regulations on imports from outside the European Union. This is a market that is more online based as opposed to the traditional shops, and therefore we have to ensure that we have the same type of criteria and rights between people who shop online and shop physically. But we cannot increase more burdens, especially financial ones, to our consumers.”
  EU Single Market harmonisation
• “Thank you. President, I'll start first of all by saying well done to the new president. A new Ombudsman and Mrs. Antonio I. Olga her every every success. Um, to give more transparency and and accountability to to citizens is essential. Europeans expect from us from European institutions more ethics, more transparency and a better administration. Our political group contributed constructively to the creation of this report, which is strong, balanced and centred on accountability, transparency and citizens rights. The report addresses main points like access to documentation, transparency and administration, conflicts of interest, revolving doors and challenges in competition, in competitions, in uh, disabled people's rights should also be respected. However, it is not acceptable that the PPE put forward extreme right wing amendments, weakening NGOs. We shall try to change this narrative of the right and extreme right. If not, we shall have no other choice than voting against this this report, because of the the the actions by the extreme right, which is playing with the report. The work of the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman's report should never be used politically.”
  Activities of EU Ombudsman
• “One aspect that received quite some attention was the definition of a package travel. This, in the end, decides whether a consumer will receive or not protection from the directive. We had a special eye for potential circumvention and made sure that if a travel organiser retargets directly a traveller with additional services within 24 hours, this will still constitute a package. In exchange, we remove the concept of linked travel arrangement. That was very unclear for organisers and not useful either for consumers. This was an important request coming directly from the travel industry. Another important element are the rights of consumers to terminate a package without paying a fee in case of extraordinary circumstances at the place of departure, destination and journey in such in such a circumstance, prohibits you from travelling in the 28 days prior before your travel. You have a right to terminate when deciding if a consumer can cancel. The travel. Warnings of national authorities, like the ones during the Covid pandemic, are taking also into account. The right to a refund must happen within 14 days, and the right to refund will become a right that each and every traveller can enjoy. For the first time, we are regulating the use of vouchers, and we make clear that they should remain voluntary for consumers to accept after a validity of 12 months. The traveller that did not use the voucher should get a refund of the original value of the amount that they paid for the travel package.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden
• “For all these rules, enforcement, like everything, will always remain key. This is why we introduced two new aspects harmonisation of fines and very importantly, a complaint handling mechanism. Those companies that infringe the Package Travel Directive can face a minimum fine of 4% of annual turnover turnover, which we introduce. In addition, to make sure that you get an answer in case of issues. We created a complaint handling mechanism with mandatory deadlines to keep. You need to get a first answer within seven working days and a reasoned reply within 30 working days. This consumer protection on paper looks nice, but this mandatory complaint mechanism will help you to get your rights respected as a traveller. I know that there is a growing political divide in this House on many different political issues, but I am happy to see that we can come together in a broad majority on issues that really matters for our voters to book and enjoy a holiday with peace of mind and get help or protection if something goes wrong, or if they are faced with unexpected circumstances. If you support this report, we will deliver on a good piece of legislation for holidaymakers. This is close to people we try to serve in this very house. Thanks a lot.”
  EU consumer protection rules: stricter requirements and tougher enforcement vs business flexibility and reduced burden