What Sandra spoke about.

6

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

–Madam President, we believe that all organisms derived from genetic engineering processes should undergo a risk assessment before they can be released, grown or consumed as food. And for this there is legislation! We reject this regulation on new genomic techniques because it is not needed. There is already legislation to regulate genetically modified organisms. We do not need legislation to libe…

5

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, the hearing of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on the case of Julian Assange is scheduled for 20 and 21 February. This is another opportunity to prevent the extradition of the journalist. Here we repeat the appeal, which we have made at various times, addressed to the competent authorities of the United Kingdom and the United States of America, asking for the refusal of extra…

5

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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State of EU solar industry in light of unfair competition (debate)

Mr President, the role of solar energy in energy supply must be valued as a solution for the present and the future, particularly in countries such as Portugal with high endogenous potential in this area. To subordinate the interests of industry and energy, solar or otherwise, to private interests is an affront to the sovereignty of peoples, the rights of workers and populations. But these are the…

5

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, we are proposing this debate because drought and extreme drought are increasingly frequent, with significant negative impacts on agricultural and livestock activities and on people's access to water. It is therefore important to bring the necessary answers to the debate, not only the urgent ones, but also, essentially, the structural ones. The use of water needs to be prioritised.…

17

Jan

2024

PT Speech

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Addressing urgent skills shortages and finding the right talents to boost job creation (European Year of Skills) (debate)

Madam President, as we approach the end of the so-called European Year of Skills, we need to take stock and ask what this initiative has done for the so-called skills. What has the European Year of Youth not done for youth? Or what the European Year of Rail did not do for rail? The answer to all of them will be very far from what the propaganda announced and what reality needed. We distance oursel…

17

Jan

2024

PT Speech

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Gender aspects of the rising cost of living and the impact of the energy crisis (debate)

Madam President, the brutal increase in the cost of living penalises women in particular: they are the majority of unemployed and precarious workers; have lower wages and pensions; they make up the majority of single parents and the population affected by poverty. In the absence of structural measures to counteract these trends, existing inequalities worsen. The rise in the price of essential good…

17

Jan

2024

PT Speech

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Improving the socio-economic situation of farmers and rural areas, ensuring fair incomes, food security as well as a just transition (debate)

Madam President, the difficulties experienced by farmers in Portugal are worsening in a context where input prices are very high. In the Algarve, the drought situation is worrying and threatens agricultural activity. At the centre, maize and rice producers – and despite the low prices paid to production – are unable to compete with imported cereals. And the lack of run-off and storage space are co…

17

Jan

2024

PT Speech

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Quality jobs in a competitive future-oriented social market economy (topical debate)

Mr President, in a context of increasing attacks on workers' rights, wages and living conditions, talking about quality employment must necessarily address: the general and urgent increase in wages; raising labour rights and strengthening collective bargaining; the eradication of precariousness; reduction of working hours without loss of earnings; combating deregulation of timetables and promoting…

13

Dec

2023

PT Speech

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EU strategy to assist young people facing the housing and cost of living crisis (topical debate)

Mr President, in Portugal, young people leave home on average around the age of 30, according to 2022 data. And unlike liberal narratives, they don't do it out of their own choice or lack of financial literacy. They do so because housing costs are unaffordable: the house instalments, which the increases in interest rates dictated by the ECB have significantly worsened, while bank profits reach new…

12

Dec

2023

PT Speech

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Situation in Venezuela (debate)

Mr President, it is misleading to think that this debate is about the situation in Venezuela. It is disappointing to think that the severe impacts of the coercive measures imposed by the United States of America and the European Union against Venezuela and its people – measures that 132 countries recently rejected at the UN General Assembly – would be discussed here. No, what this debate is about …

12

Dec

2023

PT Speech

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Parliament’s call for the right to disconnect - three years on (debate)

Mr President, technological advances, the digitalisation of various sectors of activity and, more recently, the use of modalities such as teleworking, rather than alleviating the workload with further reductions in working hours, contribute to increasing the pace and exploitation of workers. The right to disconnect, starting from just concerns and attacks felt by workers every day in their workpla…

11

Dec

2023

PT Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, the dramatic situation facing the National Health Service requires an immediate response. The Portuguese – and it is their health care that we are talking about – can no longer withstand the news of the emergencies that close, the family doctor that they do not have, or the surgery or specialty consultation that is postponed. In this scenario, either health falls into the backgrou…

11

Dec

2023

PT Speech

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The European Elections 2024 (debate)

Madam President, this report insists, among other things, on the creation of transnational lists for the European Parliament, to which it is intended to associate putative candidates for President of the European Commission. In addition to introducing distancing between elected and electorate, such proposals would accentuate imbalances and distortions that already exist today in the distribution o…

23

Nov

2023

PT Speech

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International day for the elimination of violence against women (debate)

Mr President, here we are in yet another debate marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. For us, it is not just a question of evoking yet another anniversary, but of expressing our support for and commitment to the struggle of women against labour exploitation, inequalities, discrimination and violence. Violence against women is expressed in several ways: domest…

21

Nov

2023

PT Speech

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Sustainable use of plant protection products (debate)

Madam President, the unsustainable use of pesticides is causing serious environmental, public health and food safety problems. It is important, with a view to progressively reducing the incorporation of these compounds in agricultural activity, to implement the precautionary principle with regard to pesticides and other agrochemicals, given the harmful impact that the use of pesticides has on the …

20

Nov

2023

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, once again we want to bring to the debate the serious housing situation in Portugal. Today we bring our solidarity with more than a million families who, in Portugal, are confronted with the brutal increase in the benefits of the house. We therefore appreciate the protest that the activists of the Door to Door, House for All movement organised last Wednesday in Brussels, in front of …

20

Nov

2023

PT Speech

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Children first - strengthening the Child Guarantee, two years on from its adoption - Reducing inequalities and promoting social inclusion in times of crisis for children and their families (joint debate – International Day of the Rights of the Child)

Madam President, it is our responsibility today, as always, to demand from governments and institutions that the plans set out in the Convention and in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child be implemented and that they even go further so that children can develop fully as human beings, ready to transform the world. The words of rulers on a beautiful theme, which has the potential to melt the …

20

Nov

2023

PT Speech

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Children first - strengthening the Child Guarantee, two years on from its adoption - Reducing inequalities and promoting social inclusion in times of crisis for children and their families (joint debate – International Day of the Rights of the Child)

Madam President, we have begun work on this report in a context of deteriorating living conditions for workers, with the serious increase in the cost of living recently felt. Child poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon that stems from household poverty and therefore needs a multidimensional response that necessarily involves increasing employment and job security, valuing associated incomes and…

8

Nov

2023

PT Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, there are more and more people whose right to housing is being questioned or, in increasing cases, denied. In Portugal, INE data for August 2023 point to an average increase of 41.4% in the house benefit compared to the previous year, with an average of 57% of this benefit going to the payment of interest. While this happens in the lives of millions of families, bank profits conti…

19

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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Commission proposal for a Council recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions (debate)

Mr President, the social and cooperative sector, too, is facing a difficult situation as a result of the sharp increase in the cost of living. The means, which were already often scarce, are increasingly scarce. There are more and more difficulties. Governments need to find answers to this. Access to Community funds is also difficult for these institutions. The red tape involved in the application…

19

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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Generational renewal in the EU farms of the future (debate)

Mr President, valuing agricultural activity, starting with a fair income for producers, is essential in order to attract young people to agriculture and to keep small and medium-sized farmers active, who are now almost paying to produce. The difficulties are not current and relate to fair-price disposal, high production costs, climate change, damage caused by wild boar and other wildlife, discrimi…

18

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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Fighting disinformation and dissemination of illegal content in the context of the Digital Services Act and in times of conflict (debate)

Mr President, under the pretext of fighting disinformation and fake news, the path is being taken in limiting freedom of expression and/or promoting censorship, determining which information channel we should follow or which digital platform we should use and that platform decides what is legal or not. We are concerned that the so-called fight against disinformation is becoming a manipulation of i…

17

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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Water scarcity and structural investments in access to water in the EU (debate)

Mr President, periods of drought are becoming more intense and inevitably have very negative effects on economic activities and the life of communities, causing various difficulties in people's access to water and in farming and livestock farming. The consequences of the lack of strategy and solutions to address drought issues are, inter alia, a lack of water storage capacity to meet needs, poor s…

16

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Madam President, we are in favour of a general increase in wages of at least 15% and at least EUR 150, because this is an urgent, fair, necessary and possible measure. It is urgent, because workers and families need conditions to face the brutal increase in the cost of living, with the escalation of prices of products and essential goods, including housing. It is fair, because the share of wages i…

3

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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The 10th consecutive increase in reference interest rates decided by the ECB and its consequences (debate)

Mr President, it would be easy to foresee the social consequences of rising interest rates: the impoverishment of large sections of the population, especially workers, while ensuring a huge transfer of wealth to the financial sector, banks, the economic slowdown, the risk of recession and rising unemployment. The reality is showing that your policy is intended to premeditately affect the living co…