Elisabetta GUALMINI

Policy topics Elisabetta GUALMINI is active on

What Elisabetta GUALMINI has said (7)

• 2025-01-15 “E-000162/2025 Answer given by Mr Várhelyi on behalf of the European Commission The Commission recognises the significance of this issue and the hardship endured by the victims and their families. The Commission is also aware that the situation of the victims of Thalidomide as regards access to compensation and social support varies across Member States. According to Article 168(7) of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union 1 , Union action shall respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the definition of their health policy and for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care. The responsibilities of the Member States shall include the management of health services and medical care and the allocation of the resources assigned to them. The introduction of injury compensation schemes and social support programmes falls within the scope of those responsibilities. Issues related to the organisation of social security systems and decisions concerning social benefits, including in relation to disability, are primarily under the competence of Member States. In the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030 2 , the Commission calls on Member States to define measures to further tackle gaps in social protection for persons with disabilities to reduce inequalities, including by compensating extra costs related to disability and eligibility for disability benefits. 1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:C:2008:115:FULL 2 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A52021DC0101”
  Pharmaceuticals regulation in EU · EU competences on health
• 2024-11-11 “E-002487/2024 Answer given by Executive Vice-President Ribera on behalf of the European Commission With regards to the question of the Honourable Members concerning the conformity with the internal market and the rules on competition (Article 107 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) of the Fund established by Decree-Law 34/2023 (converted into Law 56/2023) in favour of workers of publicly owned companies, who have contracted asbestosrelated diseases during their employment at shipyards, the Commission is in contact with the Italian authorities to further clarify the facts of the case and can therefore not comment any further at this stage. The Commission also recalls that, in general, it is for the Member State to assess if a specific measure involves State aid within the meaning of EU State aid rules. If a measure constitutes State aid, the Member State needs to notify the measure to the Commission before putting it into effect. Furthermore, national courts have an important role in enforcing EU law, including in State aid law.”
  EU Competition policy · State Aid
• “This is a war started by one man, Vladimir Putin. No one else. A man who wants to decide the destiny of independent nations and even their right to exist. The recent attacks in Odessa, targeting infrastructures and residential buildings, tell us that civilian deaths have increased in Ukraine over the last year. The fake news spread by Putin that Russia only hit military targets is, of course, a huge, huge propaganda. Come on, let me be very clear. First, we will never give up on the pursuit of truth and accountability. If you are responsible for an atrocious war, you must bear the responsibility for it. And we need a special tribunal for Russia's war crimes. Secondly, we will go on helping Ukraine because we need Ukraine more than Ukraine needs us. We need Zelensky heroism and resistance against tyranny and despotism. And let me finish by saying that I felt ashamed when Ukrainian flags were rejected in Italy during the Liberation Day from Nazi fascism, because today the real resistance and fight for freedom is the one going on in Ukraine. Thank you.”
  Russia-Ukraine conflict (10th term)
• “Thank you. Thank you, dear Commissioner. Today is really an historical moment because we have been talking for many years about the need to increase the strategic autonomy of the European Union. And the European Union has never been a fully fledged political entity because it has suffered from two dependencies in the east, on the gas from Russia and in the west on the United States for defense. So a democracy that depends on an autocracy to heat its homes and companies is not a fully fledged democracy. This is the point. What kind of Europe do we want? Only a huge commercial space or an autonomous political entity. So today we are really on the right track. The full ban on gas in 2028 will give us freedom and autonomy, and above all, will free us from the deception of financing ourselves. The war against the Ukrainians. Freeing ourselves from Putin's gas means freeing ourselves from his hate for our values democracy, peace and pluralism. Thank you.”
  EU approach to energy security (home-made vs import sources)
• “Thank you, dear Commissioner. The we know the number of the crisis of the automotive industry. We know the numbers of the production fall and the sales decrease. It is a perfect storm. So with multiple explaining factors, the transition to electric vehicles, costly, difficult given the shortage of raw materials and delays in the infrastructure. Changing lifestyles. Competition from China. Tariffs from the US. However, these challenges cannot justify abandoning the climate targets already fixed and carried out so far. We need to give certainty to producers and investors who have planned their activities precisely because of those targets. It would be stupid to cancel the 2035 ban on combustion engines because we need to safeguard competitiveness, but at the same time it is crystal clear that we need more flexibility. We need pragmatic action. We cannot resign to ideology, for instance, by rethinking the principle of technological neutrality. We are the policy makers. We have to find the conditions in which our core industry and its employees can innovate without perishing, can embrace sustainability without losing salaries and rights. It is not easy, but what is sure is that the answer cannot be always and forever the status quo. Thank you.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• “Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, I've got a question from for Professor Schulten. Um, your data were incredibly interesting. So it's absolutely true that there has been an impact, um, from, from by the European directive on the level, I would say of minimum wages and also the narrative as well. So this is very, very true. So the, the fact that, uh, you know, in the national member states, the debate on minimum wages really has incredibly increased. So we have had this sort of influence. But my question is another one, and it is do you have any data or perception about the level playing field? Because one of the goals was also the one to, you know, harmonize or to create more equality among the different member states, because we have a very high minimum wages, I don't know, in Luxembourg and very low, of course, in some other Eastern European countries. So is there I don't know, was there an effect of, you know, equalization, so to say thank you.”
  Minimum wages harmonisation at EU level
• “Thank you. To speak in Italian. Colleagues, the ban on Russian gas imports is a truly historic moment. We're showing which side we're on. We're on the side of democracy. We're on the side of defending territorial integrity and sovereignty. We're on the side of international law. We can no longer be blackmailed, while on the one hand, we're condemning Putin's criminal aggression and on the other, funding his war chest. But we need to look at prices, too. It is good news that Parliament has been, a head of the commission in terms of what we should do. We should be harmonizing sanctions, incentivising renewables and diversification. All of this is good and it's good to see the commission also putting a stop to oil imports. It's enough. Enough. Amid some fake news about Europe not supporting Ukraine. Yes, we're supporting the Ukrainian resistance. We are stopping funding Putin and we're in favour of peace and reconstruction.”
  EU-Russia relations (from March 2022)