Speeches

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.

Mr President, today's situation is marked by an accelerated deterioration in living conditions, rising prices and a real loss of purchasing power. The housing problem is even more central in this context, owing to speculation in rent and purchase, aggravated by successive and significant increases in interest rates imposed by the ECB, with unaffordable increases in housing loan instalments. The decision to raise interest rates puts thousands of households in a situation where they may not be able to support the payment of bank loan instalments and are threatened with losing their home. Urgent measures are therefore needed that, by cutting off the profit of banks, give families security as to the possibility of maintaining their housing. First, with the regulation of the housing market, the establishment of spreads and the possibility of renegotiating credits, as well as the necessary public investment in housing, with a view to combating speculation and exploitation and expanding the public supply of housing, which is a constitutionally enshrined right in Portugal.

Madam President, in Portugal, food products increased by 18.9%, bottle gas by 19.5% and energy products by 27.6%. There is a sharp increase in house rents, 9.2% in Lisbon and 6% in Porto. The provision of the house will rise between 100 and 150 euros and five families are evicted daily. It is estimated that more than 2 million people will fatten the poverty figures. This is the reality of Portuguese workers. Meanwhile, the big capital of distribution, energy, banking, has record profits made at the expense of speculation on the prices of products and services, low wages, precariousness, increased exploitation of labor and the impoverishment of peoples. The general increase in wages and pensions is therefore an emergency. They can't be the same as always paying. It is an emergency, because it is the only way for people to cope with the constant and severe increase in the cost of living. It is an emergency, because it boosts the economy, curbs unemployment and avoids a bigger crisis, and it is an emergency, because it is a way of redistributing more fairly the wealth produced. There is no excuse for postponing the general increase in wages and pensions.

Mr President, the Child Guarantee is an important tool for immediate responses. Around 25% of children in the European Union live at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Its implementation in the Member States already leads to conclusions. Its resources are not even sufficient to compensate for the loss of family income due to the inflationary outbreak, the consequences of the war and the disastrous sanctioning policy of the European Union. For the Child Guarantee to have a real impact, a significant increase in its budget is essential. But the fight against child poverty is done with structural policies, not patches. The Guarantee that goes beyond appearance is the guarantee of universal, free and quality education, including early childhood education, the guarantee of universal, free and quality health services, the guarantee that parents and carers have a job with rights, decent pay and time for children, the guarantee of the right to play, sport, culture, civic participation, the guarantee of living in a world of peace. I end by quoting Nelson Mandela: History will judge us by the difference we make in the day-to-day lives of children.

Madam President, this strategic plan proposes to intervene on the energy system, reacting to developments in this sector since last year, aggravated by the consequences of the war and the sanctions that, in keeping with the agenda of the United States of America, sacrifice the peoples of Europe. The measures envisaged in their various dimensions are essentially in the interests of the major economic groups and the European powers. The path outlined is far from responding to the needs of peoples, ensuring socio-economic equity and respecting the sovereignty of states. As at other times, it will be family consumers who bear the bill for the so-called single energy market, while large economic groups, which exploit the sector and resources, rub their hands and accumulate profits. We defend as necessary the intervention of States in terms of exploration, supply, production, transport and marketing of the different forms of energy, which must be in the public sphere, under public and democratic control. It is in this context that the necessary responses must be given to families and small businesses facing serious difficulties. This is the socially and environmentally sustainable path.

Madam President, we believe that this report makes a correct diagnosis of the reality of the rural world in some Member States and that it has a strong focus on agriculture as a primary activity in rural areas. We follow many of the concerns expressed. We defend the valorization of the incomes of small and medium-sized farmers for the maintenance of activity and valorization of rural areas, aspects that the Common Agricultural Policy and its successive reforms have neglected with an unfair distribution of aid and the favoring of agribusiness. The report could have gone further in defending the social functions of the state and public health, education and care services for children, the elderly and people with disabilities, with infrastructure covering all territories, providing high-quality and community-based responses. If we repeat the usual policies, which deviate from the path of cohesion, and if we insist on bowing the peoples to the flavours of big capital, we may even have stronger, connected and prosperous rural areas, but it will not be for the benefit of the peoples, but for the pockets of some.

Madam President, this report gives voice to many of the demands of people with disabilities. A real commitment must be made to the rights of persons with disabilities, striving to ensure that everyone, regardless of their social background, level of income or area of residence, has access to quality public services capable of guaranteeing them the right to health, education, housing, social security, vocational training and employment with rights and, of course, communication. We need policies that value persons with disabilities and their contribution to society, that ensure them to be full citizens, in law and in life, with the guarantee of an independent and dignified life, with access to inclusive, public and quality education, specific healthcare, culture and sport. From here we welcome people with disabilities, their families and their organisations representing and defending them. Count on us in the struggle to overcome multiple adversities and combat inequalities and discriminations, demanding the fulfillment of all rights.

Madam President, when we talk about youth policies we cannot disconnect them from concrete and necessary responses to the problems facing young people today. It is essential to put an end to exploitation and the scourge of precariousness. Let there be an increase in wages. That quality public services be guaranteed to young people and that we do not ignore the concerns about the discrimination that persists, and there are still many, and about the dangers to peace in a world that belongs to all. Young people need to be guaranteed their rights of access to education, culture, sport, decent housing, leisure, health and sex education, equality and participation in the voluntary movement. We really need the European Union and its Member States to put aside propaganda and carry out policies that enable young people to realise their expectations, put their skills at the service of development and the well-being of all, and that can turn their dreams into life.

Madam President, digital technologies have the potential to improve citizens' access to information and culture, as well as to provide them with a wider, more diverse and easier choice in accessing public goods and services and to enhance their quality of life. But this script for the digital decade follows the neoliberal primer of the European institutions, oriented towards the digital single market, which has been an instrument that promotes inequalities between Member States, making life particularly difficult for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which are unable to cope with competition and the brutal inequality of means and resources that are within the reach of the large multinational companies in the sector, and now also of the already institutionalised unicorns. According to the proposal, Member States should draw up national roadmaps linked to the Country-Specific Recommendations issued under the European Semester, which we oppose as an integral part of the European Union's instruments for imposing, conditioning and monitoring Member States' policies. Reality shows that the script should already be another.

Madam President, it is imperative to combat all forms of violence against women. There can be no more excuses. Every day, and around the world, millions of women and girls are subjected to some form of physical, psychological, moral or sexual assault and violence, at home, at work, in public. Trafficking in human beings and prostitution continue to reach alarming levels in this European Union. Other economic and social policies, quality public services and effective measures to address poverty and social exclusion are required. Combating violence against women requires the commitment to measures for the effective autonomy and emancipation of women and is therefore inseparable from improving working and living conditions. We reaffirm our commitment not to give up a millimeter in the fight for women's rights, in the fight for equality between women and men, in the world of work, in society, in the daily fight against all forms of violence and discrimination against women. There can be no more excuses.

Madam President, in this system in which we live, women find it more difficult to reach positions of power. Women and their rights remain very uncomfortable for retrograde and conservative political forces. We believe that, despite this directive, inequalities will continue to be a reality in the lives of most women. Such as the existence of pay gaps, violating the principle of equal pay for equal work, or obstacles to the right to maternity and pregnancy and, consequently, to breastfeeding leave, which continues to be systematically denied to working mothers. Or job insecurity and deregulation of schedules, which makes it impossible to balance work, family and personal life. Discrimination and stereotypes contribute to perpetuating inequalities, including in access to training and professional promotion in senior and top positions in economic and political life. Any measure that reverses this path will always be good news.