What João spoke about.

3

Oct

2022

PT Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the Council has announced a series of measures to say that it is containing energy prices. These are measures that, unsurprisingly, are far from corresponding to what is necessary, ignoring the effects of the sanctions that have aggravated already existing problems. They are temporary, limited in scope and do not touch the markets that must be defended at all costs. The profits of…

3

Oct

2022

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European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - Serious cross-border threats to health (debate)

Madam President, let us be clear: What we are talking about is a path to the health market in the European Union. Make health a business, promote its privatization, with the damages that the Portuguese feel well on their skin, with the degradation of the National Health Service and questioning its universal dimension, the quality and guarantee of the right to health. A path that the European Commi…

14

Sep

2022

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Economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU: the 8th Cohesion Report - EU border regions: living labs of European integration (debate)

Madam President, the negotiation process for the use of funds by the Member States, in particular for cohesion policies, has been visibly and significantly delayed, with implications for the necessary and rapid mobilisation and implementation of funds to finance investments that make it possible to respond to the development strategies of each State. It is worth recalling that these funds have nev…

12

Sep

2022

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Conservation and enforcement measures applicable in the Regulatory Area of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) - Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Area: conservation and management measures (debate)

Mr President, this debate is relevant to the integration of the rules governing fisheries areas managed through intergovernmental organisations or by international conventions into the legal rules governing fisheries, which we are not normally opposed to. More relevant, however, are the conditions of each State to be able to access these fishing areas, some with historical relevance, such as the N…

6

Jul

2022

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The Post-Cotonou Agreement (debate)

Mr President, the Cotonou Agreement retains the backbone of a centuries-old colonial legacy. In it we see the export of models of state and economic governance, aiming to create a normative and institutional framework that promotes the liberalisation of markets and opens the doors to big European capital. In it we see the perpetuation of relations of domination, applying conditionality measures th…

6

Jul

2022

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Taxing windfall profits of energy companies (debate)

Mr President, in the first months of 2022 the profits of energy companies skyrocketed, scandalously. Behind these profits are the exploitation of the current situation, speculation in the markets, the consequences of sanctions and war. But there are also privatisations, liberalisation of the energy sector and deregulation of prices, which have been promoted by the European Union for years. They pa…

5

Jul

2022

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EU initiatives to address the rising cost of living, including the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (debate)

Mr President, the overwhelming majority of the population in Portugal, as in Europe, is confronted with the brutal rise in prices. Life is more expensive: the already meagre salaries and pensions do not support these increases. Small and medium-sized enterprises cannot cope with increases in production costs. In the margins of this debate, the reasons that determine this escalation of inflation, s…

4

Jul

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, all over the European Union there is chaos at airports with no end in sight: hundreds of delayed or cancelled flights, lack of ground operational personnel, air control, crews. This is the result of the thousands of redundancies during the pandemic, the restructuring processes imposed by the European Commission, the path of privatisation and liberalisation of the aviation sector, …

4

Jul

2022

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Loss of life, violence and inhumane treatment against people seeking international protection at the Spanish-Moroccan border (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, the images of Melilla are beyond tragic, they are absolutely unacceptable. The institutions of the European Union, which are so hurtful in other situations, are slow to listen. And why? Because the massacre that took place there is inseparable from the policies of the European Union, which insist on an inhumane, selective, xenophobic, exploitative and criminalising v…

22

Jun

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, I find it regrettable that the Commissioner left and did not follow the discussion to the end as he should have. A few days ago, TAP, a Portuguese-flagged air carrier, was stripped of 18 slots from the airport operation, which were allocated to EasyJet, a low-cost multinational air transport company. This is yet another obstruction to TAP’s operation, jeopardising its future, nati…

22

Jun

2022

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Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (debate)

Madam President, whatever you say, the recovery and resilience mechanism is not a panacea. Let's see: A largely insufficient financial envelope to compensate for the impacts of the pandemic, now combined with the impacts of war and sanctions, is even more insufficient to relaunch and modernise Member States’ economies. A substantial part in the form of loans, which states do not access so as not t…

7

Jun

2022

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Binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States (Effort Sharing Regulation) - Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) - CO2 emission standards for cars and vans (joint debate – Fit for 55 (part 2))

Mr President, we are dealing with proposals that essentially guarantee the interests of large economic groups untouched, insisting on the perverse emissions trading system and extending it to other sectors, that is, on market solutions that normalise the right to pollute. Solutions that will be paid by the people and the workers. No, this is not the way! Other policies are required in a normative …

6

Jun

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the people, the workers are confronted with a brutal increase in the cost of living. The significant increase in inflation has a more significant impact on fuel and energy prices, or the prices of basic foodstuffs. Prices go up, wages go up, millions of people tighten their belts even more. An increase in the cost of living inseparable from the spiral of sanctions that the Europea…

6

Jun

2022

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Article 17 of the Common Fisheries Policy Regulation (short presentation)

Madam President, the discussion that is taking place here today has a fair background. How can we ensure better access to resources for small-scale fisheries? On the other hand, the form suffers from solutions that can, strictly speaking, have a perverse effect and contrary to what was announced. The solutions will not be found in the centralisation of fisheries management promoted by the Common F…

6

Jun

2022

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Question Time (Commission) Reducing the use of pesticides and strengthening consumer protection

Madam President, Commissioner, I understand that it is difficult, after so many questions, to repeat many times the same content and the evidence, finally, that there is less willingness on the part of the Commission to actually question what is needed. Because reducing the use of pesticides involves questioning the production model, directing support to small and medium-sized agriculture, family …

6

Jun

2022

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Question Time (Commission) Reducing the use of pesticides and strengthening consumer protection

Madam President, Commissioner, the debate we are discussing here today rightly refers to the need to reduce the use of pesticides while safeguarding the interests of consumers. It turns out that the use of pesticides cannot be dissociated from the phenomena of the increasing concentration of agricultural production and intensification of the production model that, in countries such as Portugal, in…

18

May

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces is not an isolated case. In 2021, in the occupied territories of Palestine, there were hundreds of abuses against journalists by Israeli forces, responsible already this year for Israel’s escalation of aggression against the Palestinian people by some 50 dead, hundreds injured and arrests of Palestinians. The unspeakable ima…

18

May

2022

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Minimum level of taxation for multinational groups (debate)

Madam President, the proposal for a directive on a minimum level of taxation for multinational groups, following the G20 agreement, to establish an overall minimum rate of 15%, certainly defines what has not yet existed. But let's see: 15 %. A figure that shows a lack of willingness to reverse the low taxation of large capital and that poses a real risk that a minimum rate may be taken as the maxi…

3

May

2022

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Impact of Russian illegal war of aggression against Ukraine on the EU transport and tourism sectors (debate)

Mr President, responding to the impacts and benefits of war in these sectors requires that the first objective be to establish peace, to put an end to a war that should not have begun, by means of an immediate ceasefire and a political solution to the conflict, responding to the common security problems in Europe, while respecting the principles of the UN Charter and international law, in particul…

2

May

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, I take the floor to warn of the recent decision of the British court to allow the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States of America, a decision which is of the greatest concern, especially in the face of previous refusals to extradite in the face of the allegation that there are risks to his life. Or the concern expressed by a UN Special Rapporteur who, denouncing arbitra…

2

May

2022

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Election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (debate)

Mr President, this initiative is part of the path of federalist deepening of the European Union, seeking to interfere in the competences of the States, in their organization of the electoral act and their own electoral traditions. From this we reject the creation of a joint constituency and transnational lists for elections to the European Parliament, which, in addition to accentuating imbalances …

7

Apr

2022

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Mental Health (debate)

Mr President, the profound changes caused by COVID-19 in people's daily lives have impacted, and still impact, their mental health and psychological well-being. Urgent responses and concrete measures are needed to ensure universal, community-based and quality healthcare. More investment in health is needed to promote regular coverage of hospital psychiatry and mental health services, without asymm…

5

Apr

2022

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Guidelines for the 2023 budget – Section III (debate)

Madam President, this resolution points the wrong way to the answers that are needed to deal with the persistence of serious socio-economic asymmetries within the European Union, now aggravated by speculative increases in energy and raw materials, with the brutal increase in the cost of living. The peoples do not need or benefit from more money for security policies and for the war industry. Peopl…

4

Apr

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, instead of prioritising the development of initiatives and measures aimed at a ceasefire and a political solution and peace in Europe, we are witnessing the European Union's following the United States and its interests. Arms escalation, the policy of economic, commercial, financial, cultural and sporting sanctions, the authoritarian drift and imposition of one-size-fits-all thinking…

4

Apr

2022

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Future of fisheries in the Channel, North Sea, Irish Sea and Atlantic Ocean (debate)

Madam President, several of the concerns, uncertainties and difficulties reflected in this report are timely. The relations developed between the European Union and the United Kingdom in the field of fisheries must be balanced and stable, allowing for continued reciprocal access to the waters, resources and markets of the parties concerned, in particular in the interests of the Member States and t…