Speeches

Mr President, the role of farmers is to produce food and to ensure food security and sovereignty. And if, in fact, they are concerned here with the ecosystem and agriculture, then let us move forward with policies that guarantee the means to support small farmers and agro-ecological farming practices. Family farming and the small and medium-sized farmers with whom we have been in contact, in the days we are doing in Portugal, face a dramatic economic situation, with the increase in production costs, the crushing of production prices and the significant reduction in incomes, to which is now added the situation of extreme drought. They question the CAP and its model of super-intensive farming and monoculture, which serves water that they do not have and which is responsible for the closure of 400 000 farms in the last 30 years and the loss of 700 000 jobs. They need another policy that ensures food sovereignty, that values and supports small and medium-sized production and that guarantees fair prices to the producer.

Madam President, in Portugal, in the first quarter alone, there were almost 7000 complaints and five homicides for domestic violence, a daily newspaper reported yesterday. Structural phenomena of violence against women persist and require specific, articulated and integrated prevention, protection and eradication measures. Among the necessary measures, we highlight: strengthening the material and human resources of the public services involved in this field, from health services to social security, security forces and services to the judicial authorities; and the adoption of specific awareness-raising and education policies on these matters among schools, police, society and their organisations. Accession to the Istanbul Convention is an important step in preventing and combating all forms of violence against women and a step in the adoption of a serious commitment by States to put an end to such violence against women, in law and in life, and that commitment cannot wait. Women's rights are not either.

Mr President, the links of scientific workers in Portugal are characterised by serious and protracted precariousness, regardless of academic degree. There are many who work through scholarships after scholarships, without access to any labour law, mortgaging their future, waiting for the contract that, if it comes, has an expiry date with no horizon in sight. This is the prevailing logic in science and research, promoted by the neoliberal guidelines of the European institutions and followed by governments that refuse to make the necessary investment in science and technology, their workers and their careers. The struggle of scientific workers will be decisive for the logic to change and for the bet on science and research to be a reality for the benefit of their workers and a sovereign strategy for the development of the country. From here, we greet the scientific workers and their representative organizations, who in recent weeks have promoted different initiatives of struggle in various parts of the country and who are preparing a great demonstration for the next day 16, in Lisbon. The precariousness of these workers must end.

Mr President, with support for the distribution of milk, fruit and vegetables, this European Union school scheme has a nutritional and educational character that can encourage children to consume diverse products. In addition, it can be the main meal of many children who have little at home to eat. It would also be important to ensure that the products supplied under this scheme are preferably local and reflect the culture and seasonality of each region, enhancing the value of small and medium-sized producers. However, the amount of European Union funding that states receive is insufficient to reach all target groups, so it is necessary, as we have been demanding, to increase the total allocation for this scheme. The rising cost of food, in particular fresh food, makes it even more difficult for many thousands of schoolchildren to access the right to healthy food. It is clear that propaganda measures, such as zero VAT in Portugal, do not resolve the situation and what is required is a general increase in wages, accompanied by control and price fixing.

Mr President, the situation in the Mediterranean Sea, with many thousands of dead, is a matter of great concern and continues to worsen. The European Union's policies have contributed to this, in particular the increasingly selective, restrictive and inhumane migration policies, by the externalisation and militarisation of borders, by a whole new market that is growing in defence and border security, while failing to respond to the right to survival of thousands of human beings seeking a better life in Europe. Yes, it is solidarity that we need to talk about. There is an urgent need for the development of a humanitarian policy to support refugees and to respect the rights of migrants and to combat the causes of mass immigration, i.e. an end to policies of war and interference, an end to neo-colonial policies of exploitation of the peoples and countries of Africa and the Middle East, respect for the sovereignty and independence of states, a determined fight against poverty and policies of effective solidarity and cooperation for the development of economically less developed countries.

Mr President, five months after the coup d'état in Peru, which led to the ousting of the President-elect, Pedro Castillo, the Peruvian workers and people continue firmly on the streets of the country, in defence of freedoms and democracy, to demand the resignation of Dina Boluarte, the convening of early elections and the convening of a Constituent Assembly. The police and military crackdown on protesters, which has already caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries, as well as the persecution of political, trade union and social leaders, continues. Faced with the grave violations to which the Peruvian workers and people are subjected, and as we did in February in Lima, we once again express our total solidarity with the Peruvian workers and people, the communists and other progressive and democratic forces fighting for respect for the popular will, for the full restoration of rights and democratic legality.

Mr President, the various recommendations that the Commission makes to the Member States on energy storage, as part of the announced reform of the energy market, bring nothing new. Throughout this package, the European Commission not only fails to address the specific problems resulting from the liberalisation of the sector, but may also exacerbate them. It is striking that the European Union, both in view of the content of the proposals submitted and in accordance with its repeated political practice, aims to safeguard the interests of large private economic groups in the energy sector and to continue a market that is clearly contaminated by its monopolistic characteristics, aggravated by oligopolistic practices. We believe that measures are needed for energy storage and that technological development will be key to its efficiency. But what the peoples need at the same time is to break with the European Union's energy policy. Depart from this policy based on the liberalisation of the sector. States to regain public ownership and strategic control over major energy companies, the restoration of quality public energy services and the national and democratic planning of energy system development based on scientific knowledge, technological progress and environmental sustainability, including the production, supply and transport of different forms of energy. As reality never tires of demonstrating, energy – as a public good – should not be dependent on market contingencies that threaten it.

Mr President, next week we are celebrating the 49th anniversary of the April Revolution. It was at dawn on April 25, 1974 that the long fascist night that oppressed Portugal and the Portuguese for 48 years came to an end. A dictatorship that subjected the people to poverty, misery, hunger and war to sustain the fortune and opulence of a minority that condemned the country to illiteracy and backwardness. A criminal dictatorship that repressed, censored, arrested, tortured and murdered many of those who dared to oppose it, particularly communists. The April Revolution restored freedom to the Portuguese people, independence, sovereignty and peace. It paved the way for the construction of a democratic, developed and progressive Portugal. It guaranteed rights, affirmed values, fulfilled dreams and brought hope and the strength to dream to children, young people and women. It is the people who command the most. Equality, freedom, democracy are not empty words, they are the present and the future to fulfil and to defend. April 25th always! Fascism never again!

Mr President, the mountain gave birth to a mouse. Another pompously announced and long-awaited directive which, after all, makes little or no progress in combating the gender pay gap. In some cases, by legitimizing them, it can even perpetuate them. This is the case for the 5% difference between the average pay levels of female and male workers. After all, some disparity is even acceptable. Let's see why. But it will certainly not be in the name of defending women's rights. In my country, the principle of equal pay for equal work is constitutionally enshrined. It is not always a reality, because there is no political will. Labour inspection means are lacking and mechanisms such as subcontracting or outsourcing are used to justify wage differences. We have tabled amendments to correct this, but most of them have not been taken into account. In practice, this proposal, by worsening Parliament's position and not contradicting the neo-liberal guidelines to which Brussels has already accustomed us, will do little or nothing to improve the lives of working women, nor will it reverse the low-wage policy that affects, above all, working women.

Mr President, workers, pensioners and their families experience a serious and unfair increase in the cost of living, with constant and unbearable price increases, with inflation above 8% in 2022 in Portugal, without the corresponding increase in wages and pensions. This situation, which leads to the impoverishment of those who live by their work, contrasts with the greatest profits of the century achieved by economic groups and multinationals, aggravating exploitation, inequalities and social injustices. There is a lot of hidden misery. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. These are increasingly frequent phrases in the journeys we are making in the districts of Portugal. There is a lack of policies that give answers to those who are going wrong, to those who are impoverished at work; policies that value wages and pensions, control prices and tax the scandalous profits of large economic groups. The workers' organised struggle, which is intensifying, will be instrumental in achieving the necessary solutions that the government and the EU refuse to provide.

Madam President, once again the Council overlooks the difficult situation facing millions of workers and families every day in the face of the continuing decline in real wages, the brutal increase in the cost of living and the accumulated loss of purchasing power. While you take smiling pictures of your propaganda, you remain impatient about the deterioration of the social and economic conditions of the workers and peoples, which result from your political choices - such as energy or rising interest rates - and favor an increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and the obscene increase in the profits of large economic groups. For your part, not a word for the necessary and urgent increase in wages and pensions, the control of prices of essential goods, the setting of maximum prices in energy and the end of the marginalist rule or the full taxation of excessive profits. Finally, among other concrete and immediate measures to counteract the social tragedy that is becoming increasingly evident.

Mr President, the title of this debate could not be further removed from reality. Growing social inequality is also a result and consequence of the political choices of the European Union. See, among others, the country-specific recommendations addressed to the Member States in the context of the European Semester, or the so-called financial assistance programmes which, under the pretext of defending competitiveness, have been a key part of the attack on workers’ rights. In a context where workers face a brutal increase in the cost of living and the deterioration of their economic and social situation, these debates only aim to mask the policies and responsibilities of those who may refuse to take the necessary measures to address this situation and respond to the aspirations and just wishes of workers and peoples, starting by demanding the necessary and urgent general increase in wages, valuing workers, who are the ones who create wealth, and protecting and promoting work with rights. This is the path that workers on the streets across Europe have been demanding.

Mr President, minimum income policies must be temporary, transitional in nature and ensure a minimum level of income that allows those who are most deprived and vulnerable to live in dignity. The introduction of minimum income schemes in all Member States of the European Union, consisting of specific measures to support people whose income is insufficient and to guarantee the right to health, education, housing, among other fundamental rights, together with inclusion measures, aims to ensure an adequate standard of living and promote social integration. But let us not deceive ourselves. The most effective way to combat poverty lies in tackling its causes. Concrete measures are needed to promote public employment policies and to support and promote national productive capacity, with a view to creating jobs with rights, valuing work and workers, increasing wages, valuing public services and guaranteeing the right to housing.

Madam President, this proposal for a regulation on access to and use of data is another piece of work for the deepening of the digital single market. This data market aims at appropriating diverse data, favouring digital giants and using them to leverage their profits. It is also not disconnected from the agreement concluded with the United States a year ago for the flow of transatlantic data, which potentially represents $7.1 trillion in economic relations. We believe that the necessary guarantee of consent in any communication of personal data should be duly taken into account and that it is the preservation of the interest of the individual, and not of large multinationals, that should guide these initiatives. We oppose a mercantilist logic of personal data, contrary to the principle of looking at personal data as an extension of the human personality. The management and use of data should be integrated into a vision of sovereign development, aiming at the preservation and safeguarding of data at the national level and at the same time involving a public dimension and a national interest.

Mr President, we have long been denouncing the brutal speculation promoted by the big economic groups, which flourished in the shadow of the pandemic and grew disproportionately under the pretext of war and sanctions: energy, banking, armaments, large-scale distribution. New data is known every day – more and more profits. The Commission, the Council and the ECB know that this is the case, as recent reports confirm. At the same time, workers lose wages, rights, are confronted with the deterioration of their social and economic situation, with unacceptable profits from those who add profits to cartelisation and the imposition of margins of 30 %, 40 % and 50 % on essential goods. Knowing this reality, what are the institutions of the European Union and the governments of the Member States going to do? Question the groups of large economic groups and their eager thirst for profit? Propose price control, including for essential food? Fighting speculation and exploitation? Taxing the extraordinary profits of multinationals? Or, on the contrary, will they continue with the path and the decisions that have brought us here and maintain shameless complicity with the big economic groups?

Madam President, we have no doubt about the potential that building renovation in the Member States of the European Union could have in saving and reducing energy consumption, promoting improved air quality, reducing emissions, reducing costs and increasing the resilience of energy systems. We argue that priority should be given to the most vulnerable consumers and lower-income households in all initiatives related to energy efficiency and building renovation. This priority should be reflected in the indicative country allocation of the European funds to be allocated for these purposes. What we do not accept is that the necessary renovation of buildings for energy efficiency purposes is another reason for increased speculation in house prices or another pretext for energy multinationals to continue to display scandalous profits, while most people cannot keep their homes warm in winter or cool in summer.

Mr President, the small agricultural producers in Portugal, those who still resist, feel the consequences of the foreign policy promoted by the European Union, under the pretext of war and sanctions, making evident the dependence of foreign trade on energy or chemical compounds and also the impositions of a CAP that despises small and medium-sized agriculture, which is based on the promotion of agribusiness, intensive and super-intensive agriculture, more dependent on the massive use of water, fertilizers, phytopharmaceuticals, exhausting the soil. This resolution continues to defend what has brought us here, from GMOs to new technologies, everything that justifies intensive production under the pretext of using its surpluses, its polluting products, to make new markets or to weaken environmental policies. Finally, so that everything remains the same. The profits of the fertilizer companies thank you. We continue to defend another production model, with policies to reduce the consumption of chemical fertilizers and with supporting alternatives, a model that promotes national production, also of fertilizers, fighting external dependence and ensuring food sovereignty of peoples.

Mr President, the living conditions of many women remain difficult. They are the ones who, on average, work longer hours, either in professional tasks or in homework. We know that working women are confronted with a difficult articulation between professional demands, the care of children and the organization of domestic life. We are concerned that teleworking, rather than helping, can create an increased daily burden. Effective equality between men and women in life requires policies that put an end to the precariousness of the female workforce, because it is women who have the most precarious links and who mostly have low wages, as well as excessive and unregulated workloads that deprive them of the right to family and personal life and leisure. It is also women who are most at risk of poverty. The 67th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is an opportunity to demand, once again, policies that represent advances in women's living conditions and rights, ensuring the right to work with rights, the valorisation of wages and the strengthening of public services, breaking with solutions that exacerbate exploitation, inequalities, discrimination and violence against women and that policies are effectively implemented. If digitalisation, innovation and technology contribute to these advances in the lives of all women, better. For our part, we have not given up and we will continue to fight for the realization of women's rights in law and in life.

Mr President, violence against women remains an undeniable scourge. Complaints about dating violence increase. Women continue to be victims of physical or psychological aggression and many end up tragically dying at the hands of their companions. Girls and women are still victims of sexual exploitation and prostitution. Harassment and labour violence continue to exist. If we look at access to sexual and reproductive rights, we see that, even if enshrined, there are many difficulties for it to be a reality in women's lives, raping them and violating their rights. Concrete measures are needed, first and foremost in prevention, including the provision of more effective instruments to protect against violence, valuing work and wages, investing in human and material resources in the various public services, guaranteeing the right to housing, more and better rights in health, social security and education, justice and security forces. We need a serious commitment on the part of the Member States to put an end to all forms of violence against women, in law and in life. There can be no more excuses.

Madam President, the coup that led to the ousting of President Pedro Castillo in early December in Peru has since sparked protests in that country. The Peruvian people took to the streets and went to Lima to demand the resignation of Dina Boluarte, the convening of early elections and the convening of a Constituent Assembly. The demonstrations have continued for more than two months, despite the police and military repression that has already caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries, as well as the persecution of political, trade union and social leaders. The brutal repression of popular demonstrations in defence of freedoms and democracy can only merit condemnation and repudiation. In Peru, there is a growing awareness of the rights that we do not have, that the country's natural resources only serve large economic groups and that it is necessary to change the neoliberal Constitution of 1993. From here, we reaffirm our solidarity with the workers and the Peruvian people, the communists and other progressive and democratic forces, who fight for the respect of the popular will and for the full restoration of rights and democratic legality.

Mr President, more and more work and tiny wages do not guarantee fundamental rights, such as the right to housing. The increase in the cost of living is so severe that today we see families that, working, are forced to share the house or return home to their parents, or even face life in a situation of homelessness. We cannot accept the social model in which inflation, accompanied by real estate financial speculation, favoured by benevolent tax regimes, leads workers to have to choose between food and having a home to live and sleep in. This view that houses constitute a lucrative investment sector, instead of fulfilling their housing function as a guarantee of social well-being, is an increasingly glowing mirror of the social inequalities that plague us. Urge o aumento dos parques habitacionais públicos e que o Estado cumpra o seu papel, garantindo o direito à habitação constitucionalmente consagrado, regulando o mercado e protegendo as pessoas dos efeitos da política de subidas de taxas de juro do BCE.

Madam President, the coup actions carried out by the most reactionary and fascist forces in Brazil, in a process that has been led by Bolsonaro and that undermines Brazil's democracy, deserve our firm and vehement condemnation. The main objective of this assault on the federal institutions of Brazil, promoted by major economic interests, some military sectors and important media, was to disrespect the will of the Brazilian people, expressed at the polls, creating the conditions that would serve as a pretext for a coup attempt and the imposition of a power of fascist nature. It is essential, for the defense of democracy in Brazil, the thorough investigation of the facts by the Brazilian authorities and the condemnation and punishment of those responsible for instigating, promoting and directly participating in coup and reactionary actions. From here we reaffirm our solidarity with Lula da Silva and with all the Brazilian democratic and progressive forces that are committed to the struggle for a more just, democratic, developed and sovereign Brazil that fulfills the aspirations of the Brazilian people.

Mr President, deregulation, liberalisation and precariousness are the face of a policy that sees new technologies as a renewed and modern opportunity for increased exploitation, the destruction of workers' rights, and the expansion and concentration of capital. The business model promoted by multinational platform companies can only please this neoliberal European Union. The so-called Uber files, exposing the close links between the national company Uber and a number of policy-makers in the Member States and the European institutions, which allowed the entry and territorial deployment of this company and its multiple services, reveal very objectively to whom and to what interests the European Union serves. When, in July, I questioned the state of play of the investigations and what measures have already been taken in relation to the information conveyed in the Uber files, the Commission gave me the same response as it gave to the thousands of taxi drivers who demonstrated in Brussels in September 2022: none. It is said that those who remain silent consent. We won't shut up.

Madam President, in today's debate on industrial strategy, we wish once again to recall how, in countries such as Portugal, we have witnessed for decades the destruction of the productive apparatus and the accentuation of the depopulation and desertification of vast areas of the country, sacrificing the essential foundations for a genuine process of economic and social development. This situation reflects the profoundly asymmetric impact of common and neoliberal policies of the European Union on states and confirms the need for the recovery of national sovereignty in areas such as industry, agriculture, fisheries, trade, but also energy. Insisting on the logic of competitiveness and the single market will not change the results, continuing to harm countries such as Portugal. The strategy we advocate is to promote national production and the use of the country's potential; to combat external dependence and affirm a sovereign path of development; support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises; creating jobs with rights, decentening workers; that stable wages and links are valued, preventing workers from being forced to emigrate.

Madam President, this strategy, the path it is trying to take and its objectives can easily be explained by the content of Vice-President Borrell's recent statements. That is, a neo-colonial strategy, aimed at creating new dependencies and serving only the interests of large economic groups and their eager thirst for profit, to the detriment of the workers and peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. What the conqueror, Mr Borrell, intends to do, in what he has considered the jungle beyond the garden, is to navigate seas that have been sailed before, to pave the way for European multinationals to exploit and appropriate resources that belong only to the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. Instead of this path and these unfortunate declarations, what we advocate are mutually beneficial relations between the Member States and the countries of Latin America, based on respect for sovereignty and independence, without external interference, compliance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and the right of these peoples, with which we stand in solidarity, to freely choose their own path of development and social progress.