Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, in 2025, Portugal was the Member State with the most burnt area in the whole of the European Union. Hundreds of firefighters risked their lives, and populations were left alone fighting the fire to save their villages. The Portuguese government failed, devalued, did not prepare, called for international help too late, was not able to provide a coordinated response. He left the populations, the firefighters, GNR, mayors, to their fate. And we are grateful for European solidarity, but I think we should also discuss whether we cannot do better. In fact, the European Union did not live up to what was expected either: the European Civil Protection Mechanism took five days to send the air assets, after being activated. Five long days. While continuing to export arms to Israel and promising Trump more business for the military industrial complex, Member States and European institutions are failing at the most basic to ensure the safety of their population – civil protection – as if the safety of European citizens were secondary. The villages surrounded by fire, desperate for help, are the tragic result of contempt for the populations and should be the first reason to shiver the path and give priority to cohesion and climate transition.

Madam President, Mrs Kallas, it is genocide, not conflict – it is genocide. Twenty-eight children die every day in the Gaza Strip, at the hands of Israel and at the hands of all those who are complicit. Do not come here to mourn the millions of humanitarian aid that are rotting because Israel has decided to starve to death in Gaza. In fact, what I needed to be doing was supporting those who are trying to get humanitarian aid to Gaza. I didn't hear a word from you about the Global Flotilla. Tonight, one of the Portuguese-flagged boats travelling Greta Thunberg, Ada Colau, Mariana Mortágua and many other European citizens was hit by a drone. It's happened before. We know that's how Israel works. And what do they say? Roberta Metsola, Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa, where is your condemnation of this attack? Where is your guarantee of protection for the Freedom Flotilla? Where is the guarantee of protection for those who are doing what we should all be doing, which is bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza? Your silence is complicit. Israel is killing with European weapons and means. The accomplices of genocide are also genocidal.

Mr President, menstrual pain has historically been made invisible. The devaluation of menstrual pain and endometriosis is yet another expression of the inequality imposed by patriarchal society, which continues to devalue women's health, and this prejudice must be combated. When cells in the endometrial tissue, the tissue that lines the uterus, grow abnormally and elsewhere, menstruation is painful – in some cases disabling pain. Endometriosis is a chronic and debilitating disease with severe impacts on quality of life, including reproductive freedom, and only prejudice explains why it continues to be ignored. In Portugal, we passed a law to protect women in this situation, guaranteeing three days of justified and paid absences per month to those suffering from endometriosis and adenomyosis. The law is recent and the news is worrying. Not only are there employers who refuse to comply with the law, there are doctors who refuse to pass the declaration and even schools who are also refusing the declarations to justify absences of students suffering from the disease. A great cruelty, based on pure prejudice. Unfortunately, this prejudice still extends throughout Europe. It is estimated that there will be around 14 million women with endometriosis in the European Union, but funding for their study is lacking. Little is known about the disease and how to deal with it. The diagnosis can take up to seven years and, even after it has been made, therapies are lacking. In fact, there is no recognition of the problem. Prejudice, then. Patriarchal prejudice is present in everything, including health. And if today we begin to talk about this inequality, it is thanks to feminist activism, which imposed on the political agenda what was condemned to a wall of silence. But if we talk today, we also have to act. There is a lack of research on women's health and their bodies. Men's bodies and health conditions can no longer be the measure of medical research and clinical practice. Lack of recognition and appreciation of women's symptoms and health conditions. There is a lack of concrete targets for training health professionals and a lack of response in public health systems. There is a lack of sexual and health education in schools, including menstrual education. All women must be given the right to their bodies and the health care they need, including abortion. Commissioner, the Commission's statement, recognising the need to agree on persistent gender inequality, also in health, is fundamental. Addressing the issue of endometriosis is an important step and I am glad that we are doing so today, even at the end of the plenary session and with so few people in Strasbourg. But I'm glad we talked. But the other essential step will be a comprehensive strategy for women's health, including the right to sexual and reproductive health throughout the European Union. And that's what we're going to keep working for.

Mr President, menstrual pain has historically been made invisible. The devaluation of menstrual pain and endometriosis is yet another expression of the inequality imposed by patriarchal society, which continues to devalue women's health, and this prejudice must be combated. When cells in the endometrial tissue, the tissue that lines the uterus, grow abnormally and elsewhere, menstruation is painful – in some cases disabling pain. Endometriosis is a chronic and debilitating disease with severe impacts on quality of life, including reproductive freedom, and only prejudice explains why it continues to be ignored. In Portugal, we passed a law to protect women in this situation, guaranteeing three days of justified and paid absences per month to those suffering from endometriosis and adenomyosis. The law is recent and the news is worrying. Not only are there employers who refuse to comply with the law, there are doctors who refuse to pass the declaration and even schools who are also refusing the declarations to justify absences of students suffering from the disease. A great cruelty, based on pure prejudice. Unfortunately, this prejudice still extends throughout Europe. It is estimated that there will be around 14 million women with endometriosis in the European Union, but funding for their study is lacking. Little is known about the disease and how to deal with it. The diagnosis can take up to seven years and, even after it has been made, therapies are lacking. In fact, there is no recognition of the problem. Prejudice, then. Patriarchal prejudice is present in everything, including health. And if today we begin to talk about this inequality, it is thanks to feminist activism, which imposed on the political agenda what was condemned to a wall of silence. But if we talk today, we also have to act. There is a lack of research on women's health and their bodies. Men's bodies and health conditions can no longer be the measure of medical research and clinical practice. Lack of recognition and appreciation of women's symptoms and health conditions. There is a lack of concrete targets for training health professionals and a lack of response in public health systems. There is a lack of sexual and health education in schools, including menstrual education. All women must be given the right to their bodies and the health care they need, including abortion. Commissioner, the Commission's statement, recognising the need to agree on persistent gender inequality, also in health, is fundamental. Addressing the issue of endometriosis is an important step and I am glad that we are doing so today, even at the end of the plenary session and with so few people in Strasbourg. But I'm glad we talked. But the other essential step will be a comprehensive strategy for women's health, including the right to sexual and reproductive health throughout the European Union. And that's what we're going to keep working for.

Mr President, Commissioner, Joseph Figueira Martin is a member of an NGO, FHI 360, and worked in the Central African Republic when, more than a year ago, he was arrested by the Wagner Group and then handed over to the authorities. More than a year later, despite many allegations by the Central African Republic government, no charges were brought against Joseph Figueira Martin. There has been no trial, there is not even a scheduled date, and there are complaints of torture that have to be investigated. But there is above all an undeniable demand. The law of the Central African Republic itself is being violated, because if there is evidence against José Figueira Martin, then there is prosecution and trial; If there is no evidence and they have not appeared for more than a year, Joseph Figueira Martin has to be released and it is already late. I know that it is not the job of this Parliament to investigate the guilt or innocence of any citizen of the European Union, and I do not want to do so. But it is the job of this Parliament and the other European institutions to demand respect for the basic rights of all citizens anywhere in the world.

Mr President, Commissioner, Joseph Figueira Martin is a member of an NGO, FHI 360, and worked in the Central African Republic when, more than a year ago, he was arrested by the Wagner Group and then handed over to the authorities. More than a year later, despite many allegations by the Central African Republic government, no charges were brought against Joseph Figueira Martin. There has been no trial, there is not even a scheduled date, and there are complaints of torture that have to be investigated. But there is above all an undeniable demand. The law of the Central African Republic itself is being violated, because if there is evidence against José Figueira Martin, then there is prosecution and trial; If there is no evidence and they have not appeared for more than a year, Joseph Figueira Martin has to be released and it is already late. I know that it is not the job of this Parliament to investigate the guilt or innocence of any citizen of the European Union, and I do not want to do so. But it is the job of this Parliament and the other European institutions to demand respect for the basic rights of all citizens anywhere in the world.

Mr President, Commissioner, in order to ensure preparedness in the event of a disaster, you have asked the population to have a kit able to meet basic needs for 72 hours and many people, all over Europe, bought lanterns and batteries, water, cans and, of course, medicines. But the Commission seems to have difficulty in following its own advice. Today's strategy, both on the creation of reserves for a possible breakdown in supply chains and on the health strategy in case of pandemics or others, is full of great intentions, but has no budget. That is, the European Union will not spend a penny on any kit of readiness. And where does the money go anyway? For armaments, of course, because there are commitments of many millions. For everything else, less and less. Is protecting supply chains and ensuring health security critical? Yes, yes. Do they invest? No, no. Indeed, and even without assuming it, the Commission is already doing what the Secretary-General of NATO requested. Take to health to spend on weapons. It is a huge irresponsibility, which we will definitely oppose.

Mr President, Commissioner, in order to ensure preparedness in the event of a disaster, you have asked the population to have a kit able to meet basic needs for 72 hours and many people, all over Europe, bought lanterns and batteries, water, cans and, of course, medicines. But the Commission seems to have difficulty in following its own advice. Today's strategy, both on the creation of reserves for a possible breakdown in supply chains and on the health strategy in case of pandemics or others, is full of great intentions, but has no budget. That is, the European Union will not spend a penny on any kit of readiness. And where does the money go anyway? For armaments, of course, because there are commitments of many millions. For everything else, less and less. Is protecting supply chains and ensuring health security critical? Yes, yes. Do they invest? No, no. Indeed, and even without assuming it, the Commission is already doing what the Secretary-General of NATO requested. Take to health to spend on weapons. It is a huge irresponsibility, which we will definitely oppose.

Madam President, Commissioner, do you believe that the Earth is flat or does science still have a place? The Climate Law established a scientific body to inform about decisions and the reduction target. Scientists have said one fundamental thing: Reducing emissions in one place to increasing emissions in the other does not solve it. Emissions trading, it is proven, does not work. Sounds pretty obvious. The planet is only one. The goals really have to be met. And what does the Commission do? Ignore the science. It presents the targets after the deadline and in minimum ambition and proposes flexibilization mechanisms that scientists have expressly warned that they do not serve. After all, goals are not to be met. After the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, the Commission decides to show that it is also unreliable. For the Commission, everything is negotiated on the market, including the climate. Problem: The planet will not negotiate temperature or sea level with anyone. We will lose everyone, starting with the poorest, who face unprotected heatwaves and storms. But the Commission does not even see them.

Mr President, Commissioner, the lack of responses of dignified care, respectful of autonomy in the various stages of life, frightens Europe and there are objective reasons for this. There is abandonment of people, abandonment of families, abandonment of women, of families that carry a burden that is not theirs and, often, the alternative to this abandonment is the institutionalization of people, that is, we condemn those who need care to live closed in an institution. The struggle that people with disabilities have fought for the right to independent living is a struggle for all people, for rights, for all people at all stages of their lives. And coming here repeating good intentions is not the answer. If the Commission wants to fight institutionalisation, I have a shocking suggestion: Stop funding it, stop funding it. Ensure that all EU funding for disability goes to independent living programmes and national care services and not to people's warehouses. The right to independent living, to dignified treatment, is not an absurd requirement. Tailored, supported homes, personal assistance, community support, accessibility, decent care, inclusive urbanism are within the reach of the European Union. There is political will.

Mr President, Mrs Kallas, I only have one minute and I think that in one minute it is still possible to evaluate the association agreement with Israel and decide to terminate it. Come with me. The second article of the agreement reads: ‘Relations between the parties shall be based on respect for human rights’. And what is Israel doing? It indiscriminately massacres civilians and is in breach of international humanitarian law. It also denies humanitarian aid. Killing children by the thousands, destroying hospitals, destroying homes and condemning them to starvation are a violation of human rights. Genocide is a violation of human rights. Madam Vice-President of the Commission, there you have the grounds for suspending the Agreement in less than a minute. I don't think anyone will be able to explain at any time how this Agreement remains active. European leaders are already complicit in the genocide and will also have to answer for its crimes.

Madam President, Commissioner, there are two forms of irresponsibility: climate deniers – who are represented here by the far right – but also good intentions, without realisation, which the right has come here today to welcome. The Oceans Pact suffers from this irresponsibility for inconsistency. When it comes to changing something, in what is most urgent, there are no concrete and binding targets, not even enough investment. Just good intentions. The ocean is our last climate protection barrier and the risk is tremendous. Transforming fisheries, supporting fishers, ending industrial trawling and halting the fossil and plastic plague in the oceans must be binding, along with increasing protected areas and banning deep-sea mining. On the way to COP30, a European Pact that evades concrete targets is the wrong signal. Commissioner, I hope we can still correct it.

Madam President, Commissioner, this debate is a parade of horrors. A far-right group arrives and advocates cutting funding to universities that position themselves against the genocide in Palestine. Soon after, another of the far-right groups is advocating cuts in scientific research on women. As if that were not enough, the third far-right group in this Parliament is coming and is proposing to adopt the fascist concept of science: You only find out what makes them right. The issue of academic freedom is not just a problem in the United States, where Donald Trump's administration is persecuting universities and scientists. The interference and threat against universities, the complete disregard for autonomy, the lack of knowledge – where racism, misogyny and homophobia remain, elevated to the criteria of science, which can or cannot be produced – are also already present in Hungary. It is already lurking in so many European countries. Isn't that what we heard here today? The Choose Europe for Science initiative aims to attract scientists from other parts of the world to do science in Europe. And it is good that Europe wants to do so, that it wants to open up to the world and that it realises that science is fundamental. But let's look at what's going on: Insufficient science budget, xenophobia at the heart of immigration policy and, moreover, with the growing coverage that popular and liberals give to the far right all over Europe, who will welcome American, European researchers, wherever they may be, when persecution here also becomes the rule?

Mr President, Commissioner, we cannot continue to abandon patients with rare diseases. Rare diseases affect 36 million citizens of the European Union, 8% of the population. We are talking about a spectrum of about 7,000 diseases, most of them chronic, disabling or even deadly. 95% have no specific treatment and the diagnosis is often late (on average, it takes five years). And after all the suffering until a diagnosis is made, the likelihood of therapy being unaffordable for the sick person and their family is very high. As if it were not enough to suffer from a rare disease, you still need to be lucky about the country where you live or are born. Access to timely diagnoses, medication and specific treatments depends on a geographic lottery. Let's see, screening tests on newborns, which are central to timely detection and treatment, range from testing for only two pathologies, as in Romania, or 49, as in Italy. Access to orphan medicines and innovative treatments depends on how quickly each Member State approves medicines at national level, after EMA authorisation, but also on States’ investment in specialised research and care and, of course, on the willingness and interest of the pharmaceutical industry to market these products. And the pharmaceutical industry only gives us proof that it's unreliable. It is time for a European Action Plan on Rare Diseases, a plan that is multidisciplinary and comprehensive, that strengthens public capacity and promotes knowledge sharing, innovation, innovative diagnostic techniques and also access to innovative medicines and treatments for all rare disease carriers without exception. And it is time to create a European fund to finance access to treatment and care, regardless of where patients are born and live, and to impose rules on the pharmaceutical industry.

Mr President, poverty and unemployment are called adjustment, precariousness is called flexibility and deregulation is called simplification. More than a decade ago, austerity arrived via the international financial crisis. Now, it's for weapons blackmail. When people and their rights need to be protected, the European institutions explain that the Treaties do not allow it. When it comes to saving banks or buying weapons, they ignore those same treaties. It is no coincidence that inflation and the cost of living are the greatest concern of the peoples of Europe, together with housing and health. The institutions know the barometer, but choose to ignore it. The European Commission, which says here today that Social Europe is so important and that it was born out of the agreement that included socialists and democrats, greens, liberals, people and part of the far right, is the Commission that abandons both the Social Pillar and the Green Deal. The left does not abandon. Security is not about filling the world with weapons. True security lies in the fight against inequality. It's in salary, home, education, health and the battle against the climate crisis.

Madam President, Commissioner, I do not see your video on the kit Survival for 72 hours is just an unfortunate joke. It is part of a strategy to impose on public opinion the inevitability of war. Twenty years ago, the war industry invented the lie of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, now it's the supposed lack of weapons in Europe. The European Union has the second largest defence spending and is the second largest arms exporter in the world. It is only supplanted by the United States. It lacks autonomy, yes, but not weapons. The problem is that even weapons depend on Putin's gas and Musk's satellites. Readiness requires energy transition. Thousands of Europeans have died in climate disasters and the Commission proposes to backtrack on climate targets. It requires public, digital and communications strategy. We are trapped between the apps American, Chinese and Russian, and medicines. The European Union depends on up to 80% of active substances produced in China. We cannot waste on the weapons that we do not need the investment in health that we lack. Readiness is not having medicines for three days, it is having medicines every day.

Madam President, Commissioner, medicine shortages are a growing problem in the European Union, there are shortages even in cancer medicines, and to have access or not is a geographical lottery. And the definition of critical medicines itself overlooks some rare diseases or women's reproductive health. Action is therefore urgently needed. But does the Commission's proposal respond to the fundamentals? The drug chain is held hostage by large pharmaceutical companies and subject to the will of third countries. Most generic medicines produced in Europe rely on active substances produced in China and India. Ensuring the production and supply of medicines therefore requires transparency, new market rules, including on patents, and public investment. Health ministers from 11 Member States are now calling for this investment to be included in defence programmes. The request puts the finger on the wound. After all, for armaments there are 800 billion euros and for health there are only restrictions. And without sovereign capacity in medicines, such as digital or energy, there is no security in Europe.

Mr President, 'You are not alone' is the first certainty that we must leave to all people, especially the youngest, who are facing mental health problems. Worsening mental health conditions are a societal problem and require a global transformation. In 2003, the European Commission already stated: 1) that there is no solution without responding to social, economic and environmental determinants; 2) that a specific strategy is needed for children and young people, and while poverty and discrimination are the greatest risks, digital and social media are responsible for the deterioration of mental health indicators in the last decade; 3) that it is necessary to ensure access to health care. Meanwhile, poverty, precariousness and environmental risks have worsened, discrimination and hatred have grown, social media and digital have moved ahead without rules, education and health are under even more pressure. Commissioner, does it make sense to continue to say that mental health is a priority while making economic and social policy choices that only exacerbate the problem?

I understand that you do not like science, you do not like conspiracies. I must tell you the following: When children die of vaccine-preventable diseases because deniers deny vaccines, they are making the policy of death. When Bolsonaro, in Brazil, denied the oxygen needed to respond to COVID and denied vaccines, he was making the policy of death. The far right has hundreds of thousands of deaths at its feet during the COVID period and should be ashamed to speak out.

Madam President, Trump, like all the far right, despises life and, above all, despises the people. Whoever is rich will eventually be saved, everyone else is expendable. The Paris Agreement, the World Health Organization and international humanitarian aid are global mechanisms for the protection of human life. Abandoning them is the policy of cruelty that despises those who die in fires and floods, those who die of starvation, those who die for lack of vaccines or medical treatment. A politics wrapped in a denialist and conspiratorial discourse with too many allies in Europe. The same people who advertise themselves as pro-life to control and humiliate women make the politics of death every day. Combating them, Commissioner, is our greatest responsibility. Do you want to know how Europe can assert itself vis-à-vis the United States or China? It's this way: Fascism, authoritarianism, negationism. To be the champion of the climate, of health, of peoples. The European Union is the second largest economy in the world. The choices we make here and now will have a planetary impact.

Mr President, there is a shortage of health workers because workers have been cut off. After all, what did the European Union think was going to happen when it ordered the Member States to cut structural expenditure, including health expenditure? Health problems have not diminished, on the contrary. With the ageing of the population, very intense work rhythms, increasing pollution, climate change, chronic diseases and others have only increased. The cost of medicines, equipment and health devices has not decreased either. Absolute faith in the market has allowed big pharma and corporations to make millions, charging states more and more. An unacceptable blackmail that the European Union accepts without blinking. The spending cut was therefore left to the workers. Without decent careers, with low wages and inhuman working conditions and hours, it is not surprising that the interest of young generations in health professions has been declining. Commissioner, to pretend that the problem is training, or mobility, is to reject the fundamental debate. This is the time to recover salaries and careers. And no, there is no digital that dispenses health workers.

Madam President, every epoch has had its bubbles and financial frauds. Today, it is cryptocurrencies, a scam disguised as investment, that generates a mountain of pollution without producing a pin. Unsurprisingly and unscrupulously, Trump has just announced the creation of his own cryptocurrency, which will be governed by the rules he will create as President of the United States. As in any pyramid scheme, only creators, like Trump, will always come out full of money, but in this case, real money, euros, dollars. The unsuspecting and dazzled will lose everything. Commissioner, by allowing cryptocurrencies under the guise of regulation, the European institutions are normalising the scam, helping to deceive citizens, and by allowing banks to build crypto-asset wallets, they are creating a growing mechanism of contagion to the markets, ignoring even the warnings of the IMF. In the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, we already had a smell of this mechanism. Let us be clear: Regulating cryptocurrencies has to be banning cryptocurrencies, preventing banks from buying them, protecting people from scams, avoiding the next financial crisis.

Mr President, over the next 25 years, three out of four people will be affected by drought worldwide. It's a disaster and it's here. Europe is warming faster than the rest of the world and the prolonged drought has arrived decades ahead of schedule. For this reason, and despite the veto of the United States and Japan on an agreement for a global drought resilience regime, the European Union cannot give up on this objective and must act at all levels. I come from a country, Portugal, where super-intensive agriculture condemns much of the Alentejo and Algarve population, including small farmers, to a life without water. What they produce does not feed these populations or leave wealth in the country. Everything is exported, including profits. Only degraded soils remain. So I know that this is not the struggle of ecology against agriculture, it is the struggle of our lives, including food production, against the maelstrom of agribusiness multinationals. That is why, Commissioner, it will take courage to tackle some of the most powerful economic interests.

Madam President, while some in this debate are upset because plastic caps are now attached to bottles, there are parts of the planet that are literally submerged in plastic seas. If nothing is done, production will triple, when scientific studies are already showing how microplastics are infiltrating our brain tissues and even breast milk. It is true that international agreements are blocked and that, from Trump's United States, we can only expect the situation to worsen. Perhaps that is why they dream of space travel to Mars, but it is on Earth, where the 8 billion people who do not enter the space plans of Elon Musk live, that it is urgent to find the path of responsibility. Commissioner, the European Union must set itself demanding targets and must impose them both internally and in its international agreements, because now is the time for us to assume our responsibility.

Mr President, the images of the joy of the Palestinian population at the ceasefire, or of the families of the three hostages released, create hope. But nothing is guaranteed and everything else is missing. We must ensure that it does not turn back and we cannot accept the continuation of the illegal occupation. Trump and Biden dispute who has the most credits in the deal, but are both complicit in the genocide. Netanyahu remains unpunished despite the international arrest warrant. The European Union still does not recognise the genocide and maintains the association agreement with Israel. Meanwhile, Israel maintains laws that impede the action of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Even here, there are those who want to cut off your support when you need reinforcement the most. The hope for peace and justice continues to reside in a social majority that maintains the demand for freedom for Palestine and obliges the institutions, including this Parliament, to do something decent.