Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. The sentencing of Jimmy Lai is an act of political repression. It is based neither on grounds of national security nor on any other grounds. It aims to silence a critical voice, destroy independent journalism and eliminate the democratic opposition in Hong Kong. With this condemnation, national authorities violate clear and legally binding international commitments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The application of vague and repressive laws, the denial of guarantees of a fair trial and the threat of life imprisonment to a 78-year-old man, seriously ill and now without proper medical care, reveal a judicial system instrumentalized for political purposes. Faced with this reality, the European Union and this Parliament cannot remain silent. Because human rights are universal and an essential pillar of our foreign policy - in this case also with China - we demand the immediate and unconditional release of Jimmy Lai and an end to the persecution of journalists and human rights defenders.

Madam President, Madam High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, this report is an essential pillar of Parliament's contribution to the European Union's foreign policy. The Union's credibility depends on the coherence between its values and its external actions, and this report therefore critically assesses the European Union's instruments, from financing and trade, to sanctions and support for human rights defenders, and makes concrete recommendations to strengthen them. We reaffirm the universality and indivisibility of human rights, condemn all forms of discrimination and intolerance, and denounce the erosion of women's and minorities' rights. We regret that it was not possible to create a majority that would allow us to move forward with a specific initiative to protect environmental defenders. But we will continue this fight. Above all, this report points to a broad democratic majority that supports a clear message: the European Union is not neutral in the face of human rights violations, and we must honour the trust of those who seek us and look to us with that expectation.

Mr President, Madam High Representative, the 2025 report on the common foreign and security policy confirms a harsh reality: the world in which the European Union operates is marked by geopolitical instability and weakening multilateralism. We face a crisis arc that requires not only strategic clarity from the Union, but also coherence and visibility. And we will only achieve this strategic clarity, coherence and visibility if we do not fall into the trap of duplicity. Sovereignty and territorial integrity are principles - they are rules - in all geographies. The arrest warrants of the International Criminal Court should have the same value, regardless of who they are. Even when, as in this report, we deliberately omit Netanyahu's name. The instruments that foreign policy uses - sanctions or trade partnerships - must be used consistently, and we must not fall into the trap of the double standards starting with the implementation of a European policy that is not based on facts and the best evidence provided to us by our delegations. Populist narratives (such as the one that classifies as persecution of Christians in Nigeria and brutal violence against Christians what, in reality, is indiscriminate violence and affects all faiths) do not help to build this policy.

Madam President, Madam High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, the situation we are seeing in Venezuela is absolutely heartbreaking. The Maduro regime has been responsible for a serious political, economic and social crisis, marking the lives of the Venezuelan people for more than a decade through repression and suffering. We haven't forgotten him. But we also do not forget that Operation Absolute Resolution, triggered by the United States of America, was an illegal intervention under international law, which deserves our outright condemnation. The history of Latin America, and beyond, shows us where the Monroe Doctrine and American interventionism led: to the imposition of agendas of interests, never to democracy. The road passes neither by dictatorship nor by imperialism. The future of Venezuela calls for an urgent democratic transition and the European Union must take an active role, supporting civil society in particular, so that Venezuelans themselves decide their path. A word of concern for the well-being and security of the population and, above all, the Luso-Venezuelans, a large community that has been facing insecurity and scarcity for too long.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, less than a year ago, the Commission presented a proposal for a regulation on critical medicines. In recent months, we have worked hard, improved it as much as possible, and tomorrow it will be voted on. Now is the time to be very clear: in a world where geopolitical risks add to natural disaster risks, resilient and prepared health systems are the first line of the European Union’s security and defence. And medicines are really our weapons and ammunition for the purposes of health systems. With the COVID-19 pandemic we have learned a hard lesson – our dependence on supply chains that can be disrupted or interrupted makes us vulnerable. And the regulation at issue here seeks to reduce that dependence while correcting other market failures. How? Supporting investment in new production units that qualify as strategic projects, using more joint purchasing processes, improving the coordinated and transparent management of contingency and national reserves, always with proportionality. Dear friends, do not tell me that this regulation is not necessary, it is essential. Those of us who were there in the last pandemic know this well.

Madam President, Commissioner, Guinea-Bissau is currently experiencing a breach of the rule of law. The alleged military coup of 26 November interrupted, by force, a legitimate electoral process, preventing Guineans from knowing the results of their free and democratically expressed will at the polls, on the eve of its release and when the defeat of President Embaló was pre-announced. Since then, the country has plunged into a campaign of terror: invasion of party headquarters, censorship of the press, violent repression of peaceful protesters, persecution of human rights defenders, arbitrary arrests – including of opposition leaders Domingos Simões Pereira, Octávio Lopes, Marciano Indi and Roberto Mbesba, for 22 days incommunicado. While the opposition candidate was forced to take refuge in the Nigerian embassy, President Embaló, allegedly overthrown by the coup, travelled freely to Senegal, to Nigeria, then to Morocco. His wife was intercepted three days ago at Lisbon airport on a flight from Bissau with EUR 5 million. The military junta imposed on Guineans a one-year transitional regime, already considered illegal by ECOWAS. The European Parliament cannot turn a blind eye to the voice of Guinea-Bissau. We condemn the coup, demand the unconditional release of all political detainees, demand the immediate restoration of democratic order and the transparent publication of election results. From the European Union, we want the suspension of any and all support that legitimizes or strengthens the junta and targeted sanctions. Tonight, the people of Guinea-Bissau look at us, let us not disappoint them.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we know that the dynamics of disruption in the global geopolitical context are increasingly rapid, and that they are a threat to the security of Europeans also in the case of access to medicines. We know that in our Member States around 50% of shortages of medicines are due to shortages of raw materials, that 70% of the medicines we use are generic and that India concentrates 20% of this global market, which is mostly dependent on active ingredients from China. This is not a new problem. It has been on Europe's agenda for over a decade. The review of the Pharmaceutical Package and the Critical Medicines Regulation are examples of responses that have been sought: more European investment in autonomous production capacity; more incentives for supply chain diversification and aggregated purchasing mechanisms; More support for partnerships. But there are new risks. And that's what we need to talk about today. Those resulting from tariff tensions with the United States and the Trump administration's latest presidential decrees, which take up the idea of "most favoured nation" prices. What impact will these measures have on the decision to relocate European companies? What impact will they have on Europeans' access to innovation? That is the real question. This is the plan we need from the Commission.

Madam President, Commissioner, it is absolutely extraordinary! If it were not for the progressives, the housing issue would not be on this Council. The subject of housing would not be in this plenary. And we have heard the European People's Party, the European People's Party, which in this House says that a big step has been taken because there are 86 words in the Council conclusions on housing, say that this is a joint victory. It is not a joint victory. It was the progressives who made housing a European political priority, because they listened to the streets, because they listened to the people. How will the progressives continue to make the European Council look at the issues of the climate agenda, not giving in to the right-wing agenda that this European Parliament, by the hand of the EPP, continues to want to impose on our President, with a much more ambitious vision of what needs to be done so that Europe does not continue to retreat, so that the Paris targets are met, so that we are not dragged by the United States to the bottom and destroy the planet and then ask: Where is the business when there is no planet? Where is the house when there is no business? This is a Europe that we do not accept. This is not the Europe that defends us. This is not the one we fight for.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, as a planet, we need the COP30 in Bethlehem to be a moment to accelerate our global response to climate change. Science tells us that we can't waste any more time and that we have to move faster. The numbers are well known. Therefore, the European Union must assume the responsibility of leading action against the climate emergency with a commitment to the target of reducing emissions by 90% by 2040, in line with the European Climate Law; with the adoption of a European law on adaptation to extreme events and a just transition directive; with the adoption of a new collective quantified target for climate finance that triples financing to developing countries; and the effective operation of the Loss and Damage Fund. And that is exactly why the European Union must also lead by example. This was not the case when, the day before yesterday, this plenary voted to delete the reference to the European Green Deal in the amendment to the decision on the forest expert group, or when it refused to adopt a common monitoring framework for European forests. Leadership is shown even by example: It is the first climate-neutral continent. When the right and the far right back on the necessary compromises and progress, our response must be even more determined and ambitious. Let us listen to the European citizens who, in all Eurobarometers, consistently tell us what they expect from us.

Honourable Member, thank you for your question, we already missed your blue cards. I do not have a cynical reading of politics, so I really want to believe that these two topics are on the agenda, because the President of the European Council, who had the good time to write, on behalf of Portugal, a letter to the President of the Commission calling for European intervention on the subject of housing, will also have the same initiative when he conducts the work of the Council. I believe that attention to the streets of Europe makes it clear that the issue of housing is as divisive as other external threats.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, on the agenda of the next European Council there are two issues that some political forces in this House consider incompatible priorities: defense and housing. It is good to see that the European Council does not give up any of them. We know that today we live in a hybrid situation, where none of our Member States are at war, but where the European Union is living in a new context and the threats we face are not only military, they are digital, health, energy and commercial. We cannot ignore the imperialist desires that surround us. That is why the European Union has made the decision to invest in its defence, and we support this path. But we don't want to be held hostage by the American military industrial complex. We don't accept that. But we also know that most of our Member States are experiencing problems in terms of access to housing. The right to housing is a fundamental right and we need a European plan for affordable housing, which brings concrete answers, with the reform of state aid, the regulation of short-term housing and, above all, investment in public housing. Ladies and gentlemen, to protect the European Union is to defend its borders, but without people being united, without a roof, borders are of no use to us.

Mr President, 'we are not interested in justice without change', Daphne Galizia's children wrote on social media in their first publication after her brutal murder eight years ago. We know that advances have been made, that two men have been sentenced to life imprisonment for supplying the car bomb, that two others have been accused of placing and detonating the device and are serving 40 years in prison. But, yes, the perpetrators of the crime remain unpunished. And the best contribution we can make to Daphne Galizia is to continue to demand justice and system reforms that ensure trust in institutions and the rule of law. Eight years after this murder, the work of journalists is increasingly under threat inside and outside the European Union. Disinformation, censorship, intimidation, but also conflict killings make this profession a risky job, when it is a pillar of our democratic life. Corruption is just one of his many enemies. It is up to civil society to denounce it. We are responsible for the changes that defend it, it gives to those who hurt.

Madam President, Commissioner, the recent ceasefire agreement in Gaza has brought relief and hope, but it is not a peace agreement. This is a fragile and precarious truce. This is not yet the time for celebration. This is the time when European diplomacy must step up its efforts and this Parliament must continue to fight for respect for its resolution of last September: the free entry of humanitarian aid and the independent work of UNRWA; the suspension of the trade component of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel; the demilitarisation of Hamas and its removal from any future to Gaza; absolute condemnation of the violence and expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank; support for a transitional government leading to a solution for the viability of the State of Palestine that is not just a protectorate. Regional peace will only be sustainable if it is based on respect for self-determination and the consolidation of democratic institutions. Global peace will only be lasting if crimes against international law are investigated and punished. This is the time of expectation. It's up to us to live up to it.

Madam President, Commissioner, according to the World Health Organisation, after the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change is the greatest global public health threat of the 21st century. You can deny it at will. Temperatures continue to rise in Europe, with longer and warmer summers, more frequent and severe heat waves, devastating rains, storms. These patterns are exacerbated by biodiversity loss and increased human mobility, and will increase the risk of vector-borne diseases and ticks, changing transmission dynamics but also geographical distribution. In my country, in Portugal, in addition to dengue on the island of Madeira, there are already reports of detection of mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus. These diseases, many of them, have no vaccines and are fatal. Anyone who is willing to let a person die from such a disease is unconscious. For our part, we consider the statement we are discussing today to be of the utmost importance, and we therefore call for the response to these new threats always to bear in mind the following: the one-health approach; a multi-disciplinary and multi-level approach; the integration of epidemiological, biological and climatic data; quality entomological research; public awareness and, of course, combating and mitigating climate change.