What Isilda spoke about.

Mr President, Commissioner, the irony that we are discussing affordable housing soon after receiving the Prime Minister of Portugal who passed legislation last week that further liberalises the rental market, allows greater rent increases and facilitates evictions must have slipped away. Lack of rents or lack of rules has already made rents unaffordable. The solution cannot be to increase the dose

Madam President, Madam Executive Vice-President, today I want to talk to you about António. The name is fictitious, but I assure you that the person is real. A few years ago, when I was mayor, Antonio approached me desperately: alone, raising two children, one of them with a deep disability, the other still a child. António did not know if he would be able to keep his job, because he had to take c

Madam President, Madam Ombudsman, the European Ombudsman plays an essential role in strengthening the quality of European governance. By investigating instances of maladministration and promoting high standards of transparency and accountability, it not only helps the institutions of the European Union to become more efficient and effective, but also strengthens citizens’ trust in the

What I can say is that this report contains the possible measures so that we can make a profound change to what housing policies have been up to now. Yes, we need money, and that money I have just mentioned here. There must be specific European funds for this area, or else we will indeed find it very difficult to respond. But, as I see it, this report contains the means and measures necessary for

Madam President, young people living in their parents' homes almost up to the age of 40, overcrowded and homeless homes and an increasing number of homeless people are increasingly common realities that we all know. For millions of Europeans, buying or renting a house has simply become impossible. Faced with this housing crisis, the European Union must shoulder its responsibilities. This report is

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, at the Porto Social Summit, the European Union set three headline targets for the European Pillar of Social Rights: increasing the employment rate, increasing lifelong learning, reducing poverty by at least 15 million people. It is our duty to acknowledge that we have failed in the last two. Lifelong learning, despite efforts, remains inaccessib

Madam President, cohesion policy is a fundamental achievement of the European project. Its aim is that no region is left behind, correcting imbalances exacerbated by the centripetal effect of the single market, which are exacerbated by the weak architecture of the euro. The objectives of this policy are enshrined in the Treaties because they are fundamental and cannot be subordinated to other prio

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, if there is one thing the last decade has taught us, it is that the speed of technological change is rapidly transforming the skill requirements of workers. A worker trained for a specific function can see that function transformed or even see it disappear quickly. To address this, investment in workers' skills needs to be stepped up. But it is

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, demographic challenges are not just numbers, they are stories of life, of depopulated territories, of families struggling to reconcile work and personal life, of young people postponing dreams for lack of conditions. Rural regions face a vicious circle of depopulation that needs to be broken, by supporting job creation that anchors populations with

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the current European Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has taken important steps, but it is still insufficient. Lack of support multiplies inequalities and penalises those already facing enormous challenges. We need a robust response, attentive to people's needs, from childhood to adulthood. In childhood, the absence of specia

Mr President, as we celebrate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, we must take a moment to reflect on how much remains to be done to ensure that children's rights are respected and protected. Children are a vital part of our future, of the collective future, but they are also the most vulnerable. The persistence of cases of violence and exploitation of children in various forms is shocki

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the housing crisis is a problem for the whole of Europe and must have a European response; it cannot be left to individual Member States alone. In addition to a Commissioner with that portfolio – which the socialists, incidentally, have long advocated – we need a real Marshall Plan for housing that mobilises European resources for social housing an

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, if one of the values of the European Union is the defence of democracy everywhere in the world, the situation in Venezuela cannot pass us by. The Venezuelan authorities have not done what is necessary to ensure free and fair elections, including refusing to publish the electoral minutes. The political and social situation is very serious. We mus