Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, I would like to express my deep concern about the conditions of detention of Spanish citizens Javier Marañón Montero and David Rodríguez Ballesta in Equatorial Guinea. There are serious indications of violation of fundamental rights of defence and lack of transparency in the judicial process, which raises legitimate doubts about the respect for the rule of law in this country, with detainees without access to defence and in prison isolation since April. Mr Javier Marañón Montero is also at serious risk of death following a hunger strike. A desperate act that reflects the gravity of the situation. It is essential that the authorities of Equatorial Guinea guarantee the physical and psychological well-being of these and all detainees, as well as full respect for international standards of justice and human rights. I join here in this House's calls for both detainees to have immediate access to fair defence, regular contact with families, health care and the necessary consular support.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to raise my voice for the release of Victoire Ingabire, leader of the opposition in Rwanda, who continues to be persecuted and imprisoned for exercising a fundamental right: the right to political participation. In the European Union, we cannot turn a blind eye to this case and to many others that have been happening in that country. Our commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law requires us to press the Rwandan authorities to respect their international obligations, to secure the release of Victoire Ingabire and to make room for real democratic life. Mrs Ingabire's case symbolises the worrying reality of human rights in Rwanda, where repression of dissenting voices, restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of the press remain too frequent. The end of the repression by the Rwandan government against all critical voices also represents the freedom of the Rwandan people to choose their future.

Madam President of the Commission, in your speech you said that we needed to be united, but we need to be united around the right priorities, those that respond to the anxieties of millions of European citizens, and they have been clear in every Eurobarometer, and also in the streets, about Gaza. So we are very clear about what we expect. First, our citizens have chosen peace as their main value and prioritise defence in European action – hence the need for our strategic autonomy. We need to be able to make choices, and for that we need to be free. And so I ask you: how is it possible that the trade agreement with the United States of America includes the commitments it includes on the procurement of military equipment and gas? Second, we recall that improving the quality of life by the outcome of their work has always been the expectation, the great promise that European democracies have made to their middle classes – hence the gains we need to achieve in competitiveness to strengthen the European Pillar of Social Rights and others. And so my question: Why should we continue to insist that the fight against migration is done by walls and not by regulating labour markets? It is consistency in values that is failing us.

President, Commissioner, today Moldova symbolises the choice and commitment of an entire people to a European future. Not only because that was the will that its voters expressed in the referendum a year ago on including the pro-European route in the Constitution, but also because, in the face of Russia’s constant malign interference and various hybrid threats – and I am only talking about Russia’s cut-off of energy supplies to the Transnistrian region at the beginning of winter – the country remains firmly committed to the reform process towards European integration. The upcoming parliamentary elections on 28 September will be a decisive moment to consolidate this path. It is therefore not surprising to fear new disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, vote buying. It is therefore essential that the European Union strengthens its political, security and economic support by helping Moldova to resist. As President Sandu said today, Moldova is the laboratory, but we are the target – let’s not forget that. We count on your work, Commissioner.

Madam President, Commissioner, in Serbia, clashes between protesters, especially young students, and supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party and President Vučić have been taking place for almost a year, when the tragedy of Novi Sad took place. The initial demand for accountability has turned into a denunciation of authoritarianism, corruption, and the demand for early elections, pushing up the intensity of police repression, which the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights has already called disproportionate. It is therefore necessary that the European institutions clearly condemn this situation, call for the urgent reduction of tensions and engage in mediation of the conflict, so that respect for the rules of the rule of law is restored. The risk of fracture of civil society and radicalisation of pro- and anti-European Union political forces is real and dangerous. And it will not only be Serbia's European future that will take a step back if that happens, but also our political expectations of enlargement.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, rural fires have always been present in a country with Mediterranean forests, such as my own, Portugal, but climate change is happening more and more rapidly, with the repetition of extreme weather events and within a national framework of the highest number of fires among all the Member States. After 2021, we invested more in prevention than combat and saw a decrease in the burnt area by 2025. This year, Portugal has once again experienced the nightmare of rural fires. More than 274,000 hectares of burnt area, in the worst year since 540,000 hectares were burned in 2017 and 116 people lost their lives. Sabugal, Covilhã, Trancoso, Ponte da Barca, the North and the Center of Portugal were once again devastated by fire this year. The support of the European Union was crucial in the fight – and it was not only my country that needed the intervention of the means of the European mechanism. But no matter how efficient a country or the European Union is in responding to rural fires, other cross-border forest threats, the best key is prevention. For this, it is necessary to know the territories, the forests, their cartography, their characteristics. We are only a few days away from the vote in the ENVI and AGRI Committees on the proposal for a European regulation establishing a forest monitoring framework, and what was an environmentally progressive knowledge-based proposal from the Commission risks being emptied by the European Parliament after being emptied by the Council. Sharing forest data for national management is essential to protect forests, to protect people. Without them, our tears will be just crocodile tears about much suffering.

Madam President, Madam High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, Gaza is starving before our eyes and with it the credibility of the European institutions, both individually and collectively. We speak of values, but we accept the systematic violation of international law, with the children of Gaza condemned to starvation, the shooting of civilians in food aid queues and the repeated bombing of health services. We apply financial sanctions against Russia, but postpone the suspension of the trade agreement with Israel, the interruption of trade with the settlements and the freezing of arms purchases and sales. We recognize all the indications and signs that genocide is taking place in Gaza, but we do not want to use the word. How is it possible that Europe, which has sworn 'never again', is here again today? We have lost moral authority vis-à-vis third countries, vis-à-vis our fellow citizens. As you have done in Ukraine, Madam High Representative, I call for the European Union to be able to return to the right side of history in Gaza, to demand an immediate ceasefire, to bring in food aid and to implement the two-state solution.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we know that the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic have made it possible to strengthen the European Union. Robusting our preparedness to respond to health threats or crises. But there is still a lot to do. In terms of citizens' literacy. Also in terms of accelerating the development of medicines, tests and vaccines against the main threats, without forgetting the guarantee of their availability. I therefore welcome the work of HERA and the Commission reflected in the Strategy for the Establishment of Reserves in the area of medical countermeasures. In particular, the establishment of a European diagnostic centre and a European therapeutic centre, which will contribute to the strategic autonomy of the Union and the establishment of specialised professionals. It was announced that the Commission is examining the need to revise the 2014 Vaccine Procurement Agreement and this is also necessary. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who thinks that we can face threats or crises, health or otherwise, without coordination, without the support of science, without sharing information, has not really understood anything that has happened in recent years in our world.

Madam President, Commissioner, Minister, in the European Union this year, temperatures, burnt areas and the number of fires are already above average. And in my country, in Portugal, there is significant fire activity, although we are still in the early summer. This reality is and will be more and more frequent and it is one of the reasons for strengthening preparedness at European level, because extreme weather events know no borders. The recent EU Preparedness Strategy fits into this context. It is a good strategy, consistent with the efforts made this summer, which translate into the reinforcement of firefighters, ground teams and planes allocated in a coordinated manner. But this consistency is not reflected in other decisions. This is the case of the Regulation on a monitoring framework for the resilience of European forests, which is currently under discussion in this House and on which the Council has adopted a common position that empties the Commission proposal, a good one, and which some political forces in this House are willing to reject. Without reliable, up-to-date and comparable data on European forests, there will be no preparedness and protection policies. How can we be so incoherent?

Honourable Member, I can only answer for myself and my political family. We always associate two words: preparation for war and strengthening our security, but also peace. And she means all that she said: education, health, stronger welfare state.

Madam President, Madam President of the European Council, Commissioner, unsurprisingly, the conclusions of the last Council show how difficult it is for our Member States to form progressive consensuses. Commitments to support Ukraine, strengthening European defence and security and competitiveness are to be welcomed, but complacency in the face of the Israeli government, the timidity of the reference to peace diplomacy and effective multilateralism or adherence to the outsourcing of migration policies are to be regretted. Above all, the political silence in the face of the war in the Gaza Strip is distressing. We are faced with ‘double standards’, comparing the positions taken by the Heads of State and Government on the invasion of Ukraine – the 18th package of sanctions – and the invasion of Gaza – which do not even gather consensus to trigger the revision of the Association Agreement with Israel. But the silence on denouncing the consequences of the externalisation of our border control, particularly in the transit countries of North Africa, is also heartbreaking. I welcome the concern for the protection of international courts and recall that Europe is, in essence, a peace project and that is where its future lies.

Madam President, the situation in the Middle East continues to give us back the image of disrespect for the international order and multilateralism, but also the image of our collective failure. In Lebanon, the terms of the ceasefire are not being respected and Israel has conducted further airstrikes. In Iran, the Israeli and US bombings likely delayed the development of nuclear weapons, but led to the suspension of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and further isolation of the country. And in Gaza, where more than 20 Israeli hostages remain in Hamas hands, the epicenter of the greatest humanitarian tragedy remains. After 33 months of war, hungry people succumb every day. UNICEF reports 112 children hospitalised per day for malnutrition. In the lines of access to humanitarian aid, now at the hands of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, 500 people have already died and 4,000 have been injured in the food dispute. That is why today we are once again echoing the voices of European citizens who question our institutions. And we ask each of the foreign ministers of our Member States who will meet on 15 July: Ladies and gentlemen, what position will you take when you discuss the question of the suspension of the Association Agreement?

Mr President, the dissolution of political parties in Mali is a serious violation of the fundamental principles of any rule of law and constitutional order. Without pluralism, without freedom of expression, without the involvement of civil society and without the democratic participation of citizens, no lasting political stability can be built. From the 2020 coup d'état and the military junta's takeover came the commitment of a transitional government with the responsibility of preparing elections. However, what we saw was a prolongation of the presidential term, an increase in repression of the opposition, arbitrary arrests and an increase in human rights violations. In this way, instability grows and the international isolation of Mali worsens. We therefore call on the transitional authorities to restore democratic space as a matter of urgency, to annul the decision that dissolved the parties and to fix an electoral calendar, of course. Only then can there be a real future for Mali.

Mr President, Madam High Representative, the military escalation between Iran and Israel is, unfortunately, a smokescreen over the immensity of the humanitarian tragedy that continues in Gaza, the political abandonment of the Hamas hostages, the diplomatic efforts to return to the ceasefire, the discussion on the situation of the two states and respect for international order and institutions, the very nature of the political regimes of Iran and Israel. It was therefore with immense sadness that I heard the words of the President of the Commission at the opening of the G7 Summit: Israel has the right to defend itself; Iran is the main source of regional instability. About Gaza, just silence. Forced population transfers, ethnic cleansing, hunger and thirst as weapons of war, the destruction of essential services, the violation of international law with the distribution of humanitarian aid by a proxy of Israel. What else do our Member States, our countries, need in order to obtain the unanimity needed to suspend the Association Agreement with Israel? Our institutions may want to look away, but Europeans...

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by stressing that the commitment and resilience shown by the Government and the people of Moldova to carry out, in a short period of time and in a difficult geopolitical context, the reforms necessary to meet the criteria for membership of the European Union and to refer to the constitutional enshrinement of a pro-European course must inspire us all. Despite campaigns, all hybrid threats and external interference, Moldova has made real progress in areas such as the rule of law, socio-economic reforms, energy independence and environmental sustainability. This autumn's own parliamentary elections should not waste these results. But the responsibility is not only for Moldova, it is also ours. The European institutions need to ensure the support that ensures that for all these reforms there is irreversibility and concrete results in the lives of citizens. The future of Moldova is a matter of mutual strategic and political interest. We can therefore only strongly advocate accelerating their gradual integration into an accession process that must be demanding, but also fair, transparent and free of artificial blockages.

Madam President, Commissioner, for two months now, the refusal of aid has put the entire population of Gaza in the face of acute levels of food insecurity: 20% in catastrophic starvation, 71,000 children, 17,000 mothers with acute malnutrition – the antechamber of death. Meanwhile, at the borders, rows of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid are waiting for permission to enter. I was there in February on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border; The trucks were stationary and the ceasefire was in effect at that time. Along the road, humanitarian aid was waiting to be delivered in droppers. In this scenario, the entry of 100 trucks is nothing. The proposal to create humanitarian corridors militarised by Israel deserves repudiation under international law. It is unacceptable that the protection of civilians and access to humanitarian aid should be conducted under the military control of one of the parties to the conflict. Therefore, today, we simply repeat that the European Union has a heavy responsibility, and I call on the High Representative, the President of the Council and the President of the Commission to raise their voices in the name of the immediate and complete opening of humanitarian corridors and to make use of the suspension of the agreement immediately.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it has been almost three decades since Parliament and the Council adopted an action programme on rare diseases - Fabry, Duchenne, Behçet or - especially present in my country, Portugal - Corino de Andrade disease, diseases that represent a small number of cases in society, but pose great difficulties for patients, families and national health systems. This is why the new European Action Plan is so necessary and why it now improves on what has already been created: the European Platform on Rare Disease Registration, the European Reference Networks, the authorisation of orphan medicinal products or the empowerment of patient organisations. But we have not forgotten how much remains to be done: more than 95% of rare diseases have no treatment available on the market and the average diagnosis time is 5 years. That is why, in this mandate, we must speed up the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases in the Union, but above all we must buy together, negotiate together orphan medicines.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the persecution of media workers in Cameroon reflects the atmosphere of political repression in Cameroon, which is well known to be one of the countries in Africa with the highest number of cases of journalists being detained. Abusing national security laws, resorting to administrative measures and resorting to military courts, Cameroonian authorities have arbitrarily detained journalists critical of official policies for many years. Cases of enforced disappearance, torture, violence, defamation and even murder have also been reported. These cases not only constitute very serious attacks on freedom of expression, but also undermine the balance of power and the public's access to free and unhindered information. So today, here, the appeal is simple and clear. We call on the Cameroonian authorities to immediately release Amadou Vamoulké, Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, Mancho Bibixy, Thomas Awah Junior and Tsi Conrad and to promote a clear and transparent investigation into the previous killings of other journalists.

Madam High Representative, today I want to talk to you about the unbearable silence of the European Union regarding the crimes of Mr Netanyahu's government. The silence in which our Member States take refuge, when in this House we call for the suspension of the Association Agreement with Israel, because it makes trade relations conditional on respect for human rights and every day they are violated in Gaza and the West Bank. The silence that we heard you maintain last week, when you regretted the interruption of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, without ever mentioning who so often violated it and, finally, broke it. The silence to which we ourselves, as Members of the European Parliament, are forced when questioned by the public opinion of Palestine, Israel and our countries. The silence in the face of the political instrumentalisation of Hamas hostages and the protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, in the face of the deaths of 50 000 Palestinians and the slow extermination of the population still living in Gaza, deprived of everything, even water. The silence that we are asking you to break today, Madam High Representative. Help us not to lose trust in our institutions.

Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, I would like to welcome the conclusions of the last European Council regarding the centrality which they attributed to the economic agenda. We know well that strengthening the European Pillar of Social Rights depends on Europe's prosperity, that only with more growth can we create more jobs, more quality jobs, and strengthen Europe's industrial base and autonomy. We therefore support the three priorities of the new agenda: simplifying, making energy more affordable for all and improving market integration. We are well aware of the gains of the administrative simplification agenda in Portugal, but we completely reject the idea of simplifying and deregulating. We must not forget that markets have flaws and that it is up to the state to correct them for the protection of all. As we cannot – or do not want to – forget that our position in international trade cannot be achieved by turning a blind eye to violations of human rights and the multilateral order. And on this issue and the voice that the European Union needs to have on the international stage, the Council conclusions remain disappointing.

Mr President, Commissioner, Sudan is experiencing an unprecedented human catastrophe since the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces started a civil war almost two years ago. Trapped in this confrontation are millions of Sudanese, in particular women and children. Sexual violence, rape of women, girls, boys – including collective rape – is systematically used as a weapon of war, with their bodies becoming part of the battlefield. The United Nations considers rape the oldest, most silenced and least condemned war crime, but this practice is also used to sow terror. Therefore, we have an obligation to demand the investigation and accountability of the perpetrators of these crimes. But we also have an obligation to maintain strong support for their victims, through mechanisms and funds available in the context of humanitarian aid, including health. We may not have it in our hands to end the war, but we have it in our hands to alleviate the suffering of its victims.

Madam President, Commissioner, the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is in a tragic stalemate. To put pressure, Israel cut off all electricity supply to Gaza (which also prevents access to desalinated drinking water) and suspended all humanitarian aid inflows. We can no longer passively watch the degradation of life in Gaza. Israel must again allow humanitarian aid – which is not an instrument of pressure on Hamas, but a right of the civilian population in Gaza. The prolongation of the war in Gaza only serves Netanyahu’s political and personal interests, supported by an ultra-Orthodox far-right coalition. The Trump administration's disrespectful proposals for the territory only reinforce this leadership, which is increasingly far from representing all Israelis. The wounds of decades will only begin to heal if we build a two-state solution based on equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. And to do so, Israel and Hamas need to move back immediately to fulfil the subsequent phases of the ceasefire agreement.

Madam President, Commissioner, the proposed Critical Medicines Act is an essential part of the architecture of our common security and defence, as we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. We know, in our countries, the experience of rupture of vital medicines (such as anesthetics, antibiotics, even insulin), as we know the diagnosis of our weaknesses: dependence on less than a handful of geographical origins in raw materials and erosion of the European industrial base. Our action is urgent because the results require time, and legislative responses are really the easiest part of what we need to do. Yes, we need a list of critical medicines, stocks Contingency, new public procurement practices. We really need to invest in European manufacturing. But it's not enough. We need to recognise that only through common European coordination and investment can we succeed in this strategy, and that the availability of medicines on the market does not serve European citizens if access, from the point of view of affordability, is at stake. Yes, we also need to talk about the price of medicines, and these are aspects that we will not give up on.

Madam President, dear President-in-Office of the Council, I would like to begin by welcoming the conclusions of last week's extraordinary European Council. More than ever, we all understand that European security is closely linked to the outcome of the war in Ukraine. The rearmament of the European Union, notably to respond to hybrid threats, is not a choice, it is an emergency of deterrence. Ukraine needs immediate support, including the mobilisation of frozen Russian assets, and the Council conclusions show the understanding that we are experiencing a historic break. But we need to go further. Just as we were able to do in the response to the pandemic, so too in security and defence investment we need greater solidarity and coordination between Member States, including through debt mutualisation and joint purchasing. And at the same time, we need to do everything to maintain the same investment ambition in the social and environmental areas of the European Union, which are our raison d'être. Finally, we need to be clear with our citizens: the moment we live in is serious, and we probably won't get over it without sacrifices. The just peace we want for Ukraine is the peace that will protect us, as free and democratic societies, all.