What João spoke about.

13

Mar

2023

PT Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President. The ECB’s insistence on consecutive interest rate increases has a brutal but uneven impact on workers, households, businesses and the economy in several Member States. A particularly serious problem for families who have indebted themselves for house purchase and in countries such as Portugal, where the variable rate in housing loans prevails. Brutal increases in house prices, as wel…

13

Mar

2023

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Policy Coherence for Development (short presentation)

Mr President, a policy of cooperation, if consistent with a dimension of effective solidarity, should be based on capacity-building for the independence, sovereignty and development strategies of countries, leveraging, among other things, their productive and strategic sectors and the economic and social progress of states. On the other hand, the European Union's so-called development cooperation …

13

Mar

2023

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Binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States (Effort Sharing Regulation) - Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) - Revision of the Market Stability Reserve for the EU Emissions Trading System (debate)

Madam President, the European Union insists on neoliberal and market solutions such as alpha and omega in combating the environmental problems we face. It seeks to delude the fact that mechanisms such as greenhouse gas emissions trading, which promotes not only perverse measures – turning the purchase and sale of the right to pollute into a business – are ineffective in reducing emissions. Green m…

15

Feb

2023

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European Central Bank - annual report 2022 (debate)

Madam President, President Lagarde, the ECB recently announced the fifth consecutive increase in interest rates, envisaging a further increase in March as part of the response to rising inflation, ignoring inseparable causes of European Union choices and other monetary and economic instruments and measures that could be considered. It turns out that the mortgage market is not homogeneous, with the…

13

Feb

2023

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, last week in Portugal many thousands of workers took to the streets and engaged in various struggles. On the 9th, there was a great day of struggle with various actions throughout the country: strikes, stoppages, plenary sessions, marches and demonstrations, filling streets in several districts. They took to the streets for better wages, against precariousness and the increase in …

1

Feb

2023

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, on GDP growth in Portugal last year, the highest since 1987, two notes. First, this growth is accompanied by the largest fall in the share of wages in GDP over the same period. Real wages have declined, workers have lost purchasing power, many are impoverished to work. Economic groups increase their profits, increase inequalities and injustices. This reality is inseparable from the g…

18

Jan

2023

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Small-scale fisheries situation in the EU and future perspectives (debate)

Madam President, at the end of the discussion, which I value, let me highlight a few more elements and recommendations of the report. The defence or creation of markets of origin, promoting short marketing channels, valuing fish and thus the income of fishermen. Faced with situations of loss of income, the creation of mechanisms that provide for wage compensation, counting them as effective workin…

18

Jan

2023

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Small-scale fisheries situation in the EU and future perspectives (debate)

Madam President, when the European institutions discuss the small-scale artisanal and coastal fishing segment, which accounts for 75% of the fleet in the fisheries sector, it is more the proclamations, the rhetoric, than the concrete measures. The options for centralising the Common Fisheries Policy, the architecture of successive fisheries funds and other regulations, which are out of step with t…

18

Jan

2023

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 15 December 2022 (continuation of debate)

Madam President, Mr Michel, the people want peace, work with rights and decent wages, the right to health, education and housing. Your answer, however, is the escalation of confrontation, the militarization of war, without any glimpse of the demand for the end of war and the defense of peace. Your answer is the insistence on sanctions, even if it means, as hitherto, that the peoples pay with their…

17

Jan

2023

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Surge of respiratory infections and the shortage of medication in Europe (debate)

Mr President, respiratory infections and the associated complications of morbidity, even mortality, and the responsiveness of health services are increasing. It is important to address the causes of this issue without neglecting, however, the social dimension and the coincidence of the worsening of people's living conditions, to which the policies of the European Union contribute, of the widesprea…

16

Jan

2023

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, these days the 16th Congress of the Polisario Front, the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, is taking place in the Sahrawi refugee camp in Dakhla. For fifty years, these people have waged a heroic struggle against the illegal occupation of their territory by the Kingdom of Morocco, which imposes in Western Sahara the last colonization in Africa, through violent repressi…

16

Jan

2023

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Shipments of waste (debate)

Mr President, let us be clear, this discussion takes place less to safeguard the interests of the peoples and the environment, more to safeguard the interests of some, few, who see in the garbage business a way to fill their pockets even more. A market of tens of billions of euros that the so-called green policies of the European Union privilege and seek to expand: restrict exports to those with t…

14

Dec

2022

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Upscaling the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (debate)

Madam President, Parliament recognises what was anticipated when it adopted the budget: the budget is insufficient. Even more so in the framework of successive instruments, imposing either more indebtedness or frontloading, or the response of more with the same budget. The problem, inflation and war, they say. But where are the impacts of sanctions or speculative exploits that generate even more o…

13

Dec

2022

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Prospects for the two-State solution for Israel and Palestine (debate)

Mr President, this is an important discussion, especially in the context of the worsening of Israel's ongoing aggression against Palestine and its people. The situation in Palestine clearly demonstrates the double standards of the EU, including on human rights. Where is the suspension clause in the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Commissioner? How much money from European Union funds continues to…

12

Dec

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, Alex Saab was illegally detained in Cape Verde in June 2020 and then transferred to the United States in October 2021. This detention, which has lasted for more than two years in clear violation of international law, is yet another example of US interference, destabilisation, pressure and blackmail against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its people. An action that also in…

12

Dec

2022

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Addressing persistent challenges in the aviation sector and the impacts on passengers, workers, capacity and safety (debate)

Madam President, last summer there was chaos at airports. The problems remain unresolved and, at the gates of another festive season, thousands of passengers are again affected and workers are overwhelmed. The option to lay off around 7 million workers during the pandemic undermined the response capacity in the face of the increased operation. The Commission, co-responsible for years of liberalisa…

23

Nov

2022

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The future European Financial Architecture for Development (debate)

Mr President, the cooperation and development policy promoted by the European Union has been an expression of the geostrategic interests of the European powers and the profits of big European capital, rather than an approach of effective cooperation aimed at empowering and consolidating the independence of developing countries. The materialisation of a global Europe gives strength to this instrume…

22

Nov

2022

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Promoting regional stability and security in the broader Middle East region (debate)

Madam President, the dangerous situation in the Middle East is inseparable from decades of politics, interference, sanctions and aggression against countries in the region, with the United States of America, NATO and the European Union as the main protagonists, and their allies, such as Israel or Saudi Arabia, responsible for wars in Iraq or Syria and recent developments, which have sown death and…

21

Nov

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, another conference on climate change has taken place. Developed countries shuffle responsibilities, emission reduction targets remain insufficient, paths of individual accountability, capital accumulation, appropriation of natural resources are deepened. Environmental problems are either unresolved or aggravated. Social inequalities are increasing. The development of countries is …

9

Nov

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, preventing the worsening of socio-economic inequalities and avoiding a deep recession require increased investment and public spending. On the contrary, the European Commission's proposal for a reform of macroeconomic governance today goes in the opposite direction. It maintains the Maastricht criteria, arbitrary, without economic foundation, usurpers of economic sovereignty and impo…

9

Nov

2022

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REPowerEU chapters in recovery and resilience plans (debate)

Madam President, this proposal falls far short of the necessary answers in the energy sector. It ignores the consequences of sanctions that sacrifice the interests of the countries and peoples of Europe. Almost no new money, more loans and indebtedness. It redirects funds from the current Recovery and Resilience Plans, Cohesion and EAFRD, removing funds needed to address structural deficits. They …

20

Oct

2022

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Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1614 of 15 September 2022 determining the existing deep-sea fishing areas and establishing a list of areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known to occur or are likely to occur (debate)

Madam President, the adoption of specific measures to protect fishing resources and vulnerable seabed ecosystems is sensible and appropriate if they are based on precise, targeted scientific knowledge that supports the political decisions that must be taken by the Member States and the impact assessment processes, while integrating the corresponding socio-economic impacts, in particular for the fi…

18

Oct

2022

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General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023 - all sections (debate)

Madam President, this is yet another budget which is insufficient to meet the needs of the peoples and workers. The proposal for the 2023 budget, when taking into account the expected inflation figures for this year, will represent a real decrease compared to the 2022 budget. The situation is aggravated in the allocations for cohesion policy, fisheries, agriculture and rural development, which, un…

17

Oct

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, Israel's systematic and brutal aggression against Palestine and its people, which continues with impunity, and the recurrent violation of international law, are only possible with the connivance and support of the United States of America and the European Union. From here we denounce and condemn the escalation of provocations, violence and destruction of Palestinian property, promote…

17

Oct

2022

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Sustainable maritime fuels (FuelEU Maritime Initiative) - Deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (debate)

Mr President, the path to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the maritime sector must be made within the framework of scientific and technological advances and consider the means and starting conditions and needs of each State within the framework of its development and sovereignty strategies. The approach of the same solution that obliges everyone, imposes biases, aggravates asymmetries for the…