What João spoke about.

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PT Written Statement

Consequences of drought, fire, and other extreme weather phenomena: increasing EU's efforts to fight climate change (debate)

Drought, fires, extreme weather events. Problems that are becoming more recurrent, such as the discussions we have here on this subject, guided by vain intentions and the absence of concrete measures for these problems. Water policy, which must remain in the public domain, cannot be placed only in times of drought. Structural measures, investment in strengthening water storage capacity are needed …

23 Apr

2024

PT Speech

EU’s response to the repeated killing of humanitarian aid workers, journalists and civilians by the Israel Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip (debate)

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Madam President, we must put an end to the genocide that Israel is committing in Gaza. We must put an end to barbarism. Israel is responsible, in just six months, for the deaths of more than 34 000 Palestinians, 76 000 injured, most of them women and children. It killed dozens of journalists, more than a hundred humanitarian personnel, hundreds of health personnel. Israel impedes access to water, …

22 Apr

2024

PT Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, in this term of office, which is now coming to an end, it is essential to denounce the insistence on strengthening the imposition of budgetary constraints, now focusing beyond deficit and debt on public expenditure, thereby increasing the pressure on investment in public services for more wage restraint, more setbacks in labour and social rights, more privatisations. Instruments of p…

22 Apr

2024

PT Speech

Common rules promoting the repair of goods (debate)

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Madam President, the points raised about the right to repair equipment and the possible liability of manufacturers in this process are important from the point of view of protecting consumer rights. However, the essential question that remains to be addressed, in the name, perhaps, of the sacrosanct market, is the durability of the equipment. Before the point in time at which repair is necessary, …

10 Apr

2024

PT Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, we are witnessing mobilizations around the world against the unspeakable horror, against the ongoing genocidal policy that Israel is imposing on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. There is growing outrage and a sense of revolt, which extends to complicity with Israel on the part of the European Union, which, in the face of the massacre, bombings and constant attacks that have …

13 Mar

2024

PT Speech

Guidelines for the 2025 Budget - Section III (debate)

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Mr President, what is certainly not needed by the peoples and workers facing worsening living conditions is the mobilisation of more money for militarisation, war, xenophobic migration policies and the building of walls. More money is needed, yes, but to enable Member States, such as Portugal, to leverage responses to the concrete problems of the population, to the worsening structural deficits, t…

13 Mar

2024

PT Speech

European Semester for economic policy coordination 2024 – European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social priorities for 2024 (joint debate – European Semester)

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Mr President, the deterioration of the socio-economic situation in Portugal, marked by a stark contrast between the increase in the cost of living and the profits of large economic groups, within the framework of the right accounts, is inseparable from the instruments of the so-called economic governance of the European Union, which undermine the ability of states to respond adequately to social a…

12 Mar

2024

PT Speech

Council and Commission statements - Preparation of the European Council meeting of 21 and 22 March 2024 (debate)

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Madam President, what can we expect from the next Council meeting? Concrete answers to the immense and growing problems facing the peoples, to the increase in the cost of living, the result of war, sanctions, exploitation and speculation? A way to increase wages? The removal of instruments that limit Member States' investment to respond to people's needs by strengthening public services, health, e…

11 Mar

2024

PT Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, we celebrated International Women's Day 114 years after its proclamation, a date marked even by those who contribute their policies to perpetuating inequalities. This is the Directive on equal pay in the European Union, which guarantees wage inequality, or policies that promote precariousness, low wages, deregulation of working hours, conditions that particularly affect women, lea…

28 Feb

2024

PT Speech

The extradition and prosecution of Julian Assange and implications on freedom of the press (debate)

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Madam President, I would like to begin by greeting John Chipton, the father of Julian Assange, who has made a point of following this debate here in the galleries and through whom I greet his son. In view of the decision on the extradition request to the United States of America in the coming days, it would be important for the institutions of the European Union to break their silence and add to t…

27 Feb

2024

PT Speech

War in the Gaza Strip and the need to reach a ceasefire, including recent developments in the region (debate)

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Madam President, the EU institutions remain impatient, intervening rhetorically while we are witnessing barbarism in Gaza. Complicity, hypocrisy, cynicism. Such is the gravity of the aggression, that South Africa has filed a complaint against Israel before the International Court of Justice for the risk of genocide. More than 100 000 victims, mostly women and children, the destruction of all essen…

27 Feb

2024

PT Speech

Multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027 - Establishing the Ukraine Facility - Establishing the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (‘STEP’) (joint debate - multiannual financial framework revision)

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Madam President, this revision involves more than EUR 64 billion, determined not by a fair response to the problems facing workers and peoples, but by other and contradictory interests. Essentially, more money for militarism, for the prolongation of the war, with all its dramatic and serious consequences for the peoples, while cutting off areas that, on the contrary, should be restored and strengt…

26 Feb

2024

PT Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, 20 February marked the World Day of Social Justice, in contrast to the deepening inequalities we are witnessing. In Portugal, 5% of the population owns 42% of the wealth. Last year, eviction requests increased by 17% compared to 2022. We are faced with growing social injustices in housing, wages and pensions that urgently need to be addressed. Injustices that particularly affect the …

26 Feb

2024

PT Speech

European Central Bank – annual report 2023 (debate)

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Mr President, Mrs Lagarde, the decisions of the ECB that you are running affect millions of families in the European Union. 1.3 million in my own country alone, the country most affected by the mistaken policy of raising interest rates in the fight against inflation. Families who have seen the provision of credit double, but not wages, who are paying more interest than for their own house, while w…

26 Feb

2024

PT Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, I agree with the two proposals to change the title of the debate and to change the time of the debate to Wednesday.

26 Feb

2024

PT Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, for almost five years Julian Assange has been held in a high-security prison in the United Kingdom awaiting a decision on the extradition request to the United States. Assange is under arrest for defending his freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom to disseminate information of public interest, freedom to expose gross human rights violations, war crimes. Las…

5 Feb

2024

PT Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, Portugal is the country in the European Union where households with housing loans have most felt the impact of the increase in interest rates set by the ECB. Families tighten their belts, the bank accumulates 12 million euros in profit per day. On the other hand, real estate speculation, deregulation of the rental market, exorbitant house prices put this constitutionally enshrined ri…

18 Jan

2024

PT Speech

Implementation of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) Regulation in fisheries and aquaculture - Regulation (EU) 1379/2013 (debate)

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Mr President, the successive reforms of the common organisation of the markets – and the common organisation of the markets in particular – have not, as would be desirable, contributed to improving the sector's performance, ensuring the stability of the markets and promoting the improvement of the marketing of fishery products. The latter reform dismantled some of the few regulatory instruments ex…

18 Jan

2024

PT Speech

Implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy and future perspectives (debate)

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Mr President, the profoundly precarious situation in which a large part of the fisheries sector finds itself – with the broadest expression in the small-scale segment – is not disconnected, on the contrary, from the common fisheries policy, which is disconnected from reality, which disregards the specific, diverse and complex situation of national fisheries, promoting greater centralisation and ma…

17 Jan

2024

PT Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 and preparation of the Special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 - Situation in Hungary and frozen EU funds (joint debate - European Council meetings)

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Mr President, after so much talk, here is the revised outline of the Stability Pact and the so-called economic governance. With the deception of so much proclaimed, as illusory, flexibility, there is the door open to greater control and conditionality over the development options of states, adding punitive mechanisms. Here is the reinforced tool for the imposition by the European Union, according …

16 Jan

2024

PT Speech

Fight against the resurgence of neo-fascism in Europe, also based on the parade that took place in Rome on 7 January (debate)

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Mr President, the influence of reactionary and undemocratic conceptions and projects and the forces that embody them is associated with the promotion – particularly through the media – of these demagogic, backward, liberal and fascizing conceptions and agendas by economic power, whose interests these forces and projects serve. Far-right forces, where big economic and financial interests seek to ch…

16 Jan

2024

PT Speech

Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation (debate)

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Mr President, in 100 days: more than 100 000 victims, including the dead, wounded and missing, most of them children and women; dozens of health workers, UN officials and journalists killed; residential neighbourhoods and infrastructure completely destroyed; almost 2 million people have been displaced; the premeditated impediment of access to water, food, electricity, fuels, medicines, the imposit…

14 Dec

2023

PT Speech

Outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28) (debate)

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Mr President, we have seen yet another COP where the expectation of high ambitions has fallen far short of the commitments and targets achieved. This was yet another COP of contrasts between the most developed and developing countries and of contradictions between the interests of some powerful transnationals and the interests of peoples and their states, with a view to their sovereign development…

11 Dec

2023

PT Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, the Stability Pact and the associated rules of economic governance constitute an unacceptable instrument for conditioning the fiscal and economic policy of the Member States, which could be further aggravated by the ongoing review process. On the contrary, what is required is its repeal and its replacement by a pact for social progress and employment. The Stability Pact and its as…

11 Dec

2023

PT Speech

Mental health (short presentation)

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Madam President, mental health must be seen as a public health problem that can affect a person from an early age to old age. Ensuring an adequate response requires public health services that ensure prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and reintegration policies. Only public service can truly respond to this design without making the response depend on the economic condition of the indivi…