What João spoke about.

22

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Addressing EU demographic challenges: towards the implementation of the 2023 Demography Toolbox (debate)

EnglishMadam, you have made a speech of hatred against immigrants and contempt for the difficulties that young families have, which do not allow them to make the decision to have children. And the question I ask you is simple: Does the far right really have a solution to any problems in society? Can the far right come up with a proposal, a solution that is not one of hatred towards others, that is not one of contempt for the difficulties of the peoples? It seems to me that the honourable Member may have some difficulty in giving that answer, but her difficulties will also be a good answer for anyone listening to this debate.

22

Jan

2025

Answers PT

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Addressing EU demographic challenges: towards the implementation of the 2023 Demography Toolbox (debate)

EnglishMadam, one of the essential issues in combating the demographic deficit is, in fact, the guarantee of employment and the guarantee of the ability to organise the life of each family on the basis of this essential condition. We need a job. And policies such as these – promoting eucalyptus, for example – which are disconnected from the reality of the territories and which do not allow the populations to settle in the territories from which they come, nor the organisation of the lives of young families in those territories, naturally lead not only to the demographic deficit, to decisions to postpone family formation, but also to decisions to emigrate and abandon these territories. Of course, this is also one of the issues that must be considered in order to combat the demographic deficit.

22

Jan

2025

Speeches PT

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Addressing EU demographic challenges: towards the implementation of the 2023 Demography Toolbox (debate)

Mr President, the demographic deficit is a serious problem and is directly related to the deterioration in living conditions, to the obstacles to the autonomy of young people, to the difficulties in making decisions to start a family, which result from job instability, deregulated working hours, difficulties in finding a house that can be paid for. It is therefore absolutely necessary to reverse the policies that have imposed these difficulties. The European Union must support national policies that promote wage growth, the reduction and regulation of working hours and stability in employment; policies that enhance the social function of motherhood, deepen the rights of motherhood and fatherhood, and guarantee the rights of children and fathers. EU support is needed for national policies to invest in public services, including public networks of universally accessible and free crèches. EU support for national investment policies in increasing public housing supply is needed. All this requires the abandonment of the neoliberal policies that have been one of the pillars of the European capitalist integration process. And the question we leave is simple: Is there really a desire to change these policies to combat the demographic deficit, or is this debate just to ease consciences?

22

Jan

2025

Speeches PT

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Composition of committees and delegations

Madam President, we raise this point of order on the basis of Rule 123 of the Rules of Procedure on the violation of human rights. And we are doing so in order for the European Parliament to take a position of denouncing and condemning the violation of human rights and international law by the Netanyahu Government, which yesterday launched a military operation against the Palestinian people in the West Bank. On Monday, we denounced the difficult situation in the West Bank. On Tuesday, Netanyahu decided to bomb the Jenin refugee camp, killing at least ten people. On the first day of Donald Trump's term as President of the United States, Netanyahu decides to pursue his genocidal policy. And this European Parliament must reject this policy, denounce its consequences and demand respect for international law.

22

Jan

2025

Speeches PT

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Presentation of the programme of activities of the Polish Presidency (debate)

Madam President, the motto of the Polish Presidency is ‘Security, Europe!". This proclamation conceals an appeal to militarism and war and a policy of privileges for the great economic and financial interests, and contempt for the economic and social problems affecting the peoples. In the programme of this Polish Presidency there is no reference to workers and their rights, and a magnifying glass is needed to find some reference to social issues that are, today, decisive in the lives of peoples. Housing is a sad caricature of that. There are millions of people who cannot find a house they can afford, but in the Polish Presidency's programme the housing problem is referred to only as a statistical problem. In contrast to this contempt for the problems of the peoples, the Polish Presidency insists on the supply of weapons and military equipment to prolong the war in Ukraine, on the increase in military spending in the EU space, on the arms race and on the policy of sanctions, the consequences of which continue to weigh on the living conditions of the peoples. This is not the way to serve the peoples of the European Union.

22

Jan

2025

Speeches PT

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 19 December 2024 (debate)

Madam President, Mr Costa, the conclusions of your first meeting as President of the Council are a cause for concern. Anyone who has raised expectations of his election will certainly be disappointed today to find that, after all, nothing has changed in the policies of the European Union. Concerns about social inequalities only take the place of footnotes. The Council conclusions and your speech today in this debate insist on militarism, war, the arms industry, the diversion of budgetary resources for the production of arms and ammunition. None of this serves the people. None of this corresponds to the needs and priorities of the peoples and none of this contributes to building a better future. So the challenge we leave you with is clear: puts increasing wages and pensions, the right to decent and affordable housing for all, public investment in services to ensure health, education, culture, social protection, high on its agenda. Put on your agenda the priority of putting the brakes on increasing the cost of living and building peace, rather than insisting on war. If you make those choices and put those priorities on your agenda, you will certainly be able to respond effectively to the needs and priorities of the peoples of the European Union.

21

Jan

2025

Speeches PT

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Situation in Venezuela following the usurpation of the presidency on 10 January 2025 (debate)

Mr President, the same staging has been repeated in this European Parliament for more than 20 years. There are more than two decades of interference, destabilisation and economic war against Venezuela, always accompanied by covert and ephemeral ‘democratic enthusiasms’ – in quotation marks. There are many who proclaim democracy, but who were responsible for, complicit in or conniving with the various attempts of coup d'état, of discrediting electoral processes by the fascist far right, of imposing a cruel economic and financial blockade against Venezuela. The conception of democracy that is defended here for Venezuela has had a direct expression in the attack on the Venezuelan Consulate in Lisbon in recent days. The Venezuelan people don't need lessons on what they should do. It needs respect for its sovereign decisions and an end to external interference and aggression. It needs an end to the blockade and the sanctions that have imposed, from the outside, the degradation of living conditions. It is on the side of respect for the Venezuelan people that the democrats must be, and it is on that side that we will continue to be.

21

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Situation in Venezuela following the usurpation of the presidency on 10 January 2025 (debate)

Mr Moreira de Sá, you made an intervention here today that brings together Chega, the PS, the PSD, the Liberal Initiative and the CDS, in a chorus against the decisions that the Venezuelan people have been taking for more than 20 years. We realize the inconvenience of the far right with the decisions that the Venezuelan people have taken in the last 20 years. The far right does not conform to the social transformations that Venezuelans are going through and the question I wanted to ask them is whether they do not have a word of respect for the decisions of the Venezuelan people. A word that respects the sovereign decisions that those people have taken, against coups, against blackmail, against the degradation of their living conditions, imposed from the sanctions that are imposed on the Venezuelan people? Is the Honourable Member not able to do an act of contrition in the name of the far right for the damage he has caused to the Venezuelan people?

21

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Geopolitical and economic implications for the transatlantic relations under the new Trump administration (debate)

Mrs Temido, you referred in your speech to two points on which I would like to ask you: security and defence and matters relating to international organisations. One of the first news of Donald Trump's decisions is precisely the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization. We will certainly agree that this is a bad decision, because, of course, global health issues require consultation in organisations such as the World Health Organisation. But with regard to the defence in particular, I would like to ask you what, in your opinion, the European Union's direction should be. It is going after the militaristic logic and the arms race that Donald Trump is seeking to impose through NATO – not only, but also through NATO – or, eventually, the path that the European Union must take is the rejection of militarism and war that can only lead people to disaster.

21

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Geopolitical and economic implications for the transatlantic relations under the new Trump administration (debate)

Mr Cotrim de Figueiredo, you spoke saying that the European Union must distance itself from the Trump administration. And my specific question to you is how does the European Union have to distance itself? Should it give priority to increasing wages, pensions and improving the living conditions of peoples? Should the European Union prioritise support for productive sectors and the use of national productive capacities? Should he distance himself from the Trump administration by refusing the arms race and militarism? Should he distance himself from Trump by investing in public services, in ensuring affordable housing? Or is this distancing from Trump merely rhetorical, so that the same policy of satisfying major economic and financial interests can continue to be pursued within the European Union?

21

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Need to enforce the Digital Services Act to protect democracy on social media platforms including against foreign interference and biased algorithms (debate)

Honourable Member, the far right argues that the tycoons who dominate the media space and the communication space should be able to use the power they have freely, without any limits. He believes that the media and communication space should function like any market where a commodity is bought and sold, even if it means manipulating people's consciousness, and considers that any limit to such action is an attack on democracy. Honourable Member, you can continue to defend all this, you cannot say that this is democracy. And that Nazi salute, which we saw yesterday, shows what they are coming for.

21

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Need to enforce the Digital Services Act to protect democracy on social media platforms including against foreign interference and biased algorithms (debate)

Honourable Member, the media and communication space is too important for democracy to function. And the question I ask you is whether the path should be one of imposing limits on democratic functioning or whether, on the contrary, it is one of deepening democracy. Today, one of the proposals we have on the table is to strengthen measures to control content. And the question I ask you is: If disinformation feeds on ignorance, why not invest in education, training, access to science, culture? If disinformation feeds on obscurantism, why not invest in the critical awareness of citizens and the ability to guarantee all citizens access to higher levels of education? Perhaps this was a more robust response to defending democracy.

20

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Heat record year 2024 - the need for climate action to fight global warming (debate)

Mrs Lídia Pereira, it is clear today that the attempt to implement policies with environmental objectives, using financial instruments and market instruments, is a failure. The carbon emissions market is truly a demonstration that there is no goal behind it to achieve certain environmental goals, but there is truly a business that is done at the expense of increasing production. And the first question I wanted to ask him was this: whether or not it recognises the failure to use such financial and market-based instruments to achieve environmental objectives? And the second question is deeper. Do you not think that, in order to truly have a perspective of combating and adapting to climate change, we need to question the capitalist mode of production? Does not production, which uses the destruction of natural resources and ecosystems, which uses waste as a profit-making factor, appear to you to be incompatible with the achievement of those environmental objectives which you referred to in your intervention?

20

Jan

2025

Speeches PT

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Ceasefire in Gaza - the urgent need to release the hostages, to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to pave the way for a two-state solution (debate)

Mr President, the violence, the horror of Israel's genocidal action, to which the Palestinian people have been subjected for more than a year in the Gaza Strip, now suspended by a temporary ceasefire that must become permanent, is unimaginable. There are more than 160 000 Palestinian victims, among them dead, wounded and missing. The humanitarian, food, shelter and health situation is disastrous, putting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at risk and demanding immediate responses. What steps will the European Union take to ensure that the humanitarian response continues to rely on the indispensable role of the United Nations Refugee Agency, despite Israel's decision? It is not enough to talk about the two-state solution. What action will the European Union take to ensure that Israel complies with international law and that the long-established solution set out in UN resolutions materialises? Peace depends on the realization of the national rights of the Palestinian people, which have remained unfulfilled for decades. And it is in this struggle that we will continue to engage.

20

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Ceasefire in Gaza - the urgent need to release the hostages, to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to pave the way for a two-state solution (debate)

Mr Bugalho, you mentioned the need for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people and in the Gaza Strip. That's evidence. The humanitarian situation is truly tragic, but it is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that is in a position to guarantee humanitarian assistance, and Israel has taken the decision to ban the action of this United Nations agency. And the question I ask you is: How does this humanitarian assistance that is needed fit in with the intervention to reverse this decision of the State of Israel? Because if this decision is not reversed, there will be no humanitarian assistance, which is increasingly urgent and necessary for the Palestinian people.

20

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Ceasefire in Gaza - the urgent need to release the hostages, to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to pave the way for a two-state solution (debate)

Honourable Member, you have indeed spoken of the need for a substantive solution to the fundamental problem of respect for the national rights of the Palestinian people, including the implementation of the United Nations resolutions giving expression to those national rights, namely the right to have a state. And the question I ask you is: What should be the role of the European Union in this regard? What is the demand that the institutions of the European Union must do to ensure that these UN resolutions are complied with and that the national rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to have a state, can actually be a real reality for these millions of Palestinians?

20

Jan

2025

Questions PT

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Ceasefire in Gaza - the urgent need to release the hostages, to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to pave the way for a two-state solution (debate)

Mr Tangier Corrêa, you have come here to tell us that Donald Trump is a great advocate of peace and you have come to tell us that he is largely responsible for the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. And I want to ask you how you can say that Donald Trump is a champion of peace, if he is the US president who calls for investment in the arms race, spending on war spending, extending NATO's military action around the world. And how can you say what you said about Gaza, if this is the man who was the President of the United States who transferred the United States Embassy to Jerusalem, in an attitude of contempt and utter ignorance of respect for the two-state solution. The honourable Member cannot defend Donald Trump here and at the same time say that he is defending the rights of the Palestinian people.

20

Jan

2025

Speeches PT

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Request for consultation of the European Economic and Social Committee (Rule 151)

Madam President, you have already referred to the debate we will have today on Gaza, but we have not yet heard a single word from the institutions of the European Union about the aggression of Israeli settlers against the Palestinian population in the territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories illegally occupied by Israel. Reports of such attacks have multiplied in recent days. The situation in those illegally occupied territories is truly unsustainable. In 2024, the United Nations itself identified over 1,700 destroyed infrastructure, 1,400 settler attacks with the complicity of Israeli security forces, some 500 Palestinians killed and 4,000 Palestinians displaced. On the 28th, Israel's decision to ban the action of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees will come to fruition if it is not reversed. And the question we ask is, where are the institutions of the European Union waiting for this situation to go, to put an end to it and to denounce it?

19

Dec

2024

Speeches PT

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Recommendation to the Council on the EU priorities for the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women - EU priorities for the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (joint debate - EU priorities for the upcoming session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women)

Mr President, 30 years ago, the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action set out a perspective that should have been a step forward on the path towards realising women's rights in all the dimensions of life in which these rights are expressed and felt. The 69th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is an opportunity, not only to assess the state of play, but to discuss solutions that will enable progress to be made on this path, which has not yet been fully achieved. We need to move forward on this path to eliminate the inequalities that affect women. The struggle of women for equality cannot be separated from the struggle against economic and social exploitation. And it is necessary to guarantee conditions so that women see, in practice, at work, in life, in all its dimensions, guaranteed the right to housing, to work, to a life free from violence, the right to access to health, education and social protection. And for these rights to truly be a reality in their lives, we need to change policies. It is regrettable that here we hear interventions from the far right, counteracting the struggle of the sexes that women have been doing for their equality, and fighting us...

19

Dec

2024

Questions PT

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Recommendation to the Council on the EU priorities for the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women - EU priorities for the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (joint debate - EU priorities for the upcoming session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women)

Mr President, the next session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is a good opportunity to assess the progress made with regard to the fulfilment of women's rights. And the question we ask is simple: Is it possible to combat the inequalities affecting women by maintaining the same neoliberal policies that aggravate exploitation and impose severe social setbacks? Is it possible to guarantee the fulfilment of women's rights by maintaining policies that deny social rights and perpetuate inequalities in access to health, education, culture, social protection, work and employment? We don't think so. We really need to change policies.

18

Dec

2024

Speeches PT

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Challenges facing EU farmers and agricultural workers: improving working conditions, including their mental well-being (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, the title of this debate is constructed with a good deal of hypocrisy. It even seems that the difficulties of small and medium-sized farmers and farm workers do not have a direct link to European Union policies. And it even seems that these policies do not have, in this Parliament, a majority support that goes from the Social Democrats to the extreme right. I give an example of this: the recent Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur, in a country like Portugal, will open the door to the agony of farms, especially in the meat sector, which already today has a brutal production deficit. In this context, the phenomena of concentration of production can be accentuated, of course, by the concern that this reality creates for small and medium-sized producers. But this is only the corollary of a path of the common agricultural policy that has been determined in this context for decades. In my country, 40% of farmers do not benefit from any direct support from the CAP and 10% of beneficiaries receive 70% of such support. Do you want to improve working conditions and mental health in the sector? Link payments to production, support family farming, promote short production and supply chains, ensure a fair income for smallholders and livestock farmers.

18

Dec

2024

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Tackling abusive subcontracting and labour market intermediaries (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, subcontracting, labour intermediation, outsourcing of services are all mechanisms that aggravate the exploitation of those who work, which impose job insecurity and instability in the lives of workers. Now, the right way is not to create rules that make it possible to organize labor relations in such a way that, between the beneficiary of the provision of work and the worker, there are three, four, five, sometimes more entities, not only to guarantee a ladder of disaccountability regarding working conditions, but also to guarantee various levels of appropriation of the income from the value that is created with work. Subcontracting or outsourcing of services to hire doctors, nurses and other health professionals, essential for running hospitals or health centres, shall not be permitted. The path that must be taken, the priority that must be given, is to guarantee effective employment contracts for those who meet the permanent needs of companies.

18

Dec

2024

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Promoting social dialogue and collective bargaining and the right to strike in the EU (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the role of trade unions is absolutely essential for the defence of workers' rights, and collective bargaining is one of the instruments for defending these rights and improving workers' working and living conditions. It is through collective agreements that wages are increased, working hours are reduced, safety and health at work are guaranteed, and vacation days are increased. Collective bargaining is, in fact, an instrument of social progress that should be valued in this sense. We therefore disagree with the European Union's guidelines, which focus on European social dialogue and the promotion of collective bargaining at European level. These options weaken national trade unions and their power to claim. What is needed is to enhance the role of trade unions in defending the rights of their workers, from the direct link with workers in companies and workplaces, acting and intervening in the democratic framework of defending workers' rights. We understand that there are far-right interventions here, that the only thing it has to say is hatred against workers and their rights. But we realize that, because that's also their historical role and that's also why...

18

Dec

2024

Speeches PT

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Preparation of the European Council of 19-20 December 2024 (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, anyone who has created expectations by choosing António Costa to chair the European Council will certainly be disappointed today to see that there is no change in the policies of the European Union. This is not yet where the President of the European Council comes to Parliament to really discuss the problems affecting the peoples. And there is no prospect on the agenda of this European Council meeting of discussing what really concerns citizens: support for policies to increase wages and pensions, support for policies that guarantee the right to decent and affordable housing for all, policies to halt the rise in the cost of living, to invest in public services to guarantee access to health, education, social protection or culture, and policies that genuinely invest in building solutions for peace and respect for the rights of peoples. On the contrary, António Costa's first meeting at the head of the European Council will be marked by plans for the indefinite prolongation of the war in Ukraine and by the stubbornness of the sanctions policy, by inaction in the face of the genocide of the Palestinian people, by the inhumanity of the migration policy. Here is a suggestion to the President of the European Council, António Costa: bring to this meeting the slogan that in Portugal is shouted in the streets, that the salary increase is fair and necessary. That would be a good contribution to the European Council discussing what is truly a priority in the lives of peoples.

16

Dec

2024

Speeches PT

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, in Portugal, the PSD-CDS Government has decided to limit pregnant women's access to public hospitals. The government parties, and the government itself, which here in the European Parliament and in the European institutions, say that Portugal is the good student of the European Union, that Portugal is a good example of compliance with all the budgetary rules, all the targets that are imposed on us, in Portugal, at the moment, close the doors of public hospitals to pregnant women, to comply with these rules that allow them to make a good appearance before the European Union. What is happening in obstetrics is an example of what is happening in many other areas. The Government does not hire professionals, does not value their careers, leaves in exhaustion the few remaining health professionals, reduces or limits the access of users to health centers, pushes them to the hospital emergency room and, in the end, says that it is creating too much pressure, and that the teams of professionals cannot withstand so much pressure. Ladies and gentlemen, public services are essential to guarantee citizens' rights and the National Health Service (NHS) is absolutely indispensable to guarantee the right to health. When you value budgetary constraints here, remember that in Portugal it is pregnant women who pay the costs of these policies.