What João spoke about.

4

Apr

2022

PT Speech

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Use of vehicles hired without drivers for the carriage of goods by road (debate)

Madam President, the road haulage sector, which continues to play an important role in the economy of each state, has been affected by the economic downturn and rising costs, particularly of fuel and tolls. Here too, the impetus to liberalise and deregulate the policies of the European Union is being felt in favour of the sacrosanct market, imposing the precariousness of labour relations, with the…

23

Mar

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, peace must be given a chance. The war in Ukraine must be stopped. A war that should never have started, that does not serve the Ukrainian people, the Russian people or the peoples of Europe. It serves the military industrial complex or those who profit from speculation and at the expense of imposing sanctions that will be paid by workers and peoples, attacking rights and living co…

23

Mar

2022

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Debriefing of the European Council meeting in Paris on 10 March 2022 - Preparation of the European Council meeting 24-25 March 2022 (debate)

Madam President, what the discussion in the Council makes it possible to anticipate is the intention to speed up the process of considerably deepening the militarism of the European Union: a strategic compass geared towards war, interventionism, interference, confrontation, which ensures greater and substantial mobilisation of financial resources for the arms industry, the creation of operational …

10

Mar

2022

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A systematic EU approach to chronic kidney disease (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of patients with chronic kidney disease in the world. The response to this disease requires the strengthening of the public service and the response it provides in the prevention, control and treatment of the disease, along with specific support for patients. A disease that has several associated risk factors, inc…

9

Mar

2022

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Fair and simple taxation supporting the recovery strategy (continuation of debate)

Mr President, in recent decades, while multinationals and large fortunes have benefited from multiple and generous benefits, exemptions and various instruments of aggressive tax planning, the tax burden on workers' incomes and indirect taxes has increased. Micro and small businesses have also been severely punished by unfair tax policies. It is an undeniable phenomenon, also with the European Unio…

9

Mar

2022

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General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030 (debate)

Madam President, the outcome of the trilogue negotiations on this eighth programme confirms improvements in several respects compared with the Commission's initial proposal, but also a step backwards compared with Parliament's more ambitious mandate. We have said this before and we would point out once again that the positive elements in this programme are in conflict with the policies of the Euro…

7

Mar

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the implementation of cohesion policy was discussed here today. Apart from differing levels of implementation or regional disparities and greater or lesser convergence, the framework of policies, particularly macroeconomic policies, but not only those that run counter to these objectives, was absent from the debate. From so-called free competition in the single market to the singl…

16

Feb

2022

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Charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures (debate)

Mr President, the European Union may well seek to paint its policies green and to proclaim marked reductions in environmental impacts. It cannot hide the set of interests that serve the processes of liberalisation of sectors at the expense of the interests of peoples, labour and workers' rights, undermining the provision of services, development and territorial, social and economic cohesion of Sta…

15

Feb

2022

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EU-Africa relations (debate)

Madam President, on the subject of the forthcoming EU-Africa Summit, a renewed partnership is affirmed, with new momentum, growth, shared prosperity and stability. The history and policy of the European Union for Africa are, however, dissociated from these statements and do not allow us to omit that the European Union looks at the African continent as a geostrategic board where resources, markets …

15

Feb

2022

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Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer(debate)

Madam President, we have before us a very comprehensive report on the characterisation of this serious reality and the elements of the fight against cancer today. As in the pandemic situation, the role that national public health services have played and continue to play is indispensable. We do not, therefore, follow the development of a so-called health union, decentralization of competences or a…

14

Feb

2022

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, Portugal has been experiencing a worrying meteorological drought since November. Various consequences are expected, ranging from supply for human consumption to agricultural production or hydropower production. The impact on farms in various regions of the country poses the need to resort to irrigation, with the inevitable increase in production costs, in the context of the rise o…

15

Dec

2021

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Stocktaking of the European Year of Rail (debate)

Mr President, in the European Year of Railways I accepted your challenge: travel by train from Lisbon to Strasbourg. In three days of travel six trains, 57 hours. This trip demonstrates that your propaganda does not adhere to reality. The removal of international connections from Portugal, representing an unacceptable setback of 130 years, is a sign of the process of liberalisation and harmonisati…

15

Dec

2021

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 16-17 December 2021 - The EU's response to the global resurgence of Covid-19 and the new emerging Covid variants (debate)

Mr President, after pushing states to liberalise and privatise the energy sector by removing this important instrument of sovereignty and intervention in favour of households, businesses and the economy, the EU is telling them that they must pay the bill for this option, which only confirms the need to regain public control of this sector. Moreover, the EU’s uncompromising persistence in safeguard…

13

Dec

2021

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, a lot has been said this year about the European Year of Railways, about the need to promote this transport, to use it more, to replace connections. Well, that's what I tried to do starting from rhetoric to practice and that's what brings me and what just got me to Strasbourg about an hour ago, coming from a three-day trip from Lisbon: Lisbon, Entroncamento, Badajoz, Madrid, Barce…

24

Nov

2021

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The EU's role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic: how to vaccinate the world (topical debate)

Madam President, the 66% of the population with full vaccination in the EU contrasts with the 42% worldwide, or worse, the 7% in Africa. It was the people who paid for the massive public resources mobilized for research, production, early purchase of vaccines. Multinationals have taken ownership rights and swell profits at the expense of global health, to the detriment of public research and produ…

24

Nov

2021

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Outcome of the COP26 in Glasgow (debate)

Mr President, no one coming out of COP26 will be able to announce great achievements. On the contrary, the path mapped out remains virtually unchanged. Reality demands the urgency of concrete measures. The answer, that, insists on false solutions, insufficient mitigation measures or inadequate, such as market ones. The interests of those who profit from buying and selling the right to pollute or o…

22

Nov

2021

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, 400,000 farms, especially small and family farms, have been lost in Portugal over the last 30 years and 700,000 jobs have been lost. The utilised agricultural area has decreased, the concentration of production and the increase in the average area of holdings has increased. Small and medium-sized farmers and family farming face a dramatic economic situation with rising production …

22

Nov

2021

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A pharmaceutical strategy for Europe (debate)

Madam President, in Portugal last year, the expenditure of the National Health Service on medicines dispensed in pharmacies and public hospitals exceeded EUR 2.7 billion. These are figures that speak well of the interests that are mobilized around the drug. We recall episodes of pressure and blackmail from the pharmaceutical industry for the purchase of medicines at unaffordable prices, the role i…

22

Nov

2021

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The revision of the Financial Regulation in view of the entry into force of the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (debate)

Madam President, some of the points made in the report are relevant but incomplete. The example of low absorption of funds by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises cannot be detached from the budget options, together with systemic cuts in cohesion and structural funds. The proper use of funds, the fight against corruption and tax evasion and fraud suffer a severe setback with the emptying and …

10

Nov

2021

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, the brutal rise in electricity prices, which is putting enormous pressure on many households and on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, goes hand in hand with choices made by the European Union: the liberalisation and privatisation of the sector, the maintenance of oligopolistic markets, in which prices are cartelised and where the methodologies adopted guarantee astronomical …

10

Nov

2021

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Disclosure of income tax information by certain undertakings and branches (debate)

Madam President, reports on the disclosure of corporate and branch income tax information could be an important tool for detecting profit shifting mechanisms, such as letterbox companies, patent boxes and transfer pricing agreements, or unfair tax competition practices between legal systems. The proposal that Parliament confirms falls far short of what would be desired and necessary in public scru…

19

Oct

2021

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General budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 - all sections (debate)

Madam President, as in previous years, we are faced with a probable budgetary reduction, when what was required would be a significant reinforcement of the European Union's budget alongside the reinforcement of its redistributive function to support the promotion of effective convergence in economic and social progress between Member States, as well as support for the real economy of the Member St…

5

Oct

2021

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Assessing the Union’s measures for the EU tourism sector as the end of the Summer season nears (debate)

Madam President, COVID-19 has hit the tourism sector dramatically, due to the strong restrictive measures that have been put in place. In countries such as Portugal, where excessive concentration and dependence on the tourism sector has been promoted in the economy, in turn dependent on a limited number of markets to the detriment of the productive sectors, the repercussions of these impacts spill…

4

Oct

2021

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The role of development policy in the response to biodiversity loss in developing countries, in the context of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda (debate)

Mr President, the defence and protection of biodiversity is a central issue in the preservation of nature and its ecological functions. It is in the developing countries that the areas with the greatest genetic diversity are located, and there, too, the greatest losses are recorded. The EU's responsibility to promote practices which, while not serving the interests of the people, have contributed …

16

Sep

2021

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EU transparency in the development, purchase and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines (debate)

Mr President, the impossibility of scrutinising the concluded contracts on which this debate focuses is only one part of the problem. It was the huge public resources that paid for the research, the production, the early purchase of vaccines. Multinationals have taken property rights and block the fastest advance of vaccination in the name of profit. To this end, they rely on the European Union's …