Speeches

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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...

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

Mr President, Commissioner, these amendments concerning the rules on the transparency of international arbitration, of course, are without prejudice to having more access to documentation, to having more access to information, in particular by the public, and it is, of course, a positive element. Now, these amendments do not solve the fundamental problem. And the fundamental problem is that, when the public interest is at stake, it must be the courts of the State, it must be international law and, in particular, private international law that serves as the basis for resolving international disputes. Because, when the public interest is at stake, we cannot refer to arbitration the resolution of disputes, otherwise they will be captured by those who, from an economic point of view, have the capacity to influence the action of these arbitral tribunals. We cannot expect that a small state against a large transnational corporation will guarantee the preservation, the defence of its public interest in an arbitral tribunal that is not obliged to apply the substantive rules of law that preserve and defend the public interest. And that is the direction in which we should move and not that of encouraging arbitration.

Madam President, Commissioner, the fires in Portugal, in the Autonomous Region of Madeira or in the districts of Viseu and Aveiro are examples of disasters, the damage to which needs to be repaired. Support is needed for small and medium-sized farmers and forest producers, for small entrepreneurs, for the people who have been affected by these disasters. And it is important that there are European funds that can be mobilised for that response. That is why we shall be voting in favour of this proposal presented to us with the RESTORE programme. Nevertheless, we have put forward some proposals on issues that we think are important. Firstly, it seems to us that the possibility of mobilising and improving the Solidarity Fund and the emergency aid reserve, which are also intended for situations such as this, should not be dispensed with. Secondly, it seems to us that the funds that are used from the ERDF and the European Social Fund Plus for this purpose should be compensated so that they are not missing from the funds for economic, social and territorial cohesion. And thirdly, we propose that this compensation of money should be used for what really serves the peoples and should be made from the money earmarked for war and militarism.

Madam President, I begin by welcoming the European Ombudsman and the report she has presented to us on the work carried out in 2023, which is a beautiful portrait of what is the reality today in the European Union, of those who are allowed to do everything and of those who are severely harmed by the European reality, the European Union and its policies. I would like to highlight two aspects of the report presented by the Ombudsman: one on banking scandals and one on migration. The way in which the European Ombudsman intervened in complaints about the actions of banking and financial authorities, including the impact of financial scandals such as the Banco Popular scandal or the LIBOR rate scandal, shows how banks can do everything they want to the detriment of citizens, with citizens bearing those consequences and, with great difficulty, authorities preventing such practices. At the same time, the intervention of the European Ombudsman on migration in relation to violence and abuses against migrants and refugees and in relation to illegal practices of forced returns or other Frontex practices that are criticised by the European Ombudsman. These inevitably make a mark on the lives of migrants. This is a mark of inequality in the European Union.

Madam President, 35 years after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, many of these rights are just a mirage. The thousands of children killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip are the cruelest and most inhuman proof of this reality. There is much to be done to make the rights of the Convention a reality in the lives of children. Parental poverty must be eradicated so that it does not also affect children, by guaranteeing work with rights and fair wages, the strengthening of parental and breastfeeding leave or the universalisation and strengthening of family allowances. There is a need to increase investment in universal, public and quality health and education services, to increase public and universal provision of crèches and pre-school education, to ensure decent housing conditions, balanced nutrition and accessible transport. In order for them to grow up happily, it is necessary to combat the discrimination and violence to which they are subjected and to guarantee them an effective right to leisure and free time, to receive care in the family environment. We need to listen to children and give them an effective opportunity to participate in the decisions that affect them. It's a long road, but it's a road we need to go.

Mr Assis, the Draghi report says and I quote: “We need a genuine EU economic foreign policy. The EU should coordinate preferential trade agreements and direct investment". End of citation. The report also proposes the creation of a decision-making mechanism for the approval of common external direct investment, i.e. a mechanism enabling the European Union to decide on the external direct investment that is made in each country of the European Union, naturally by companies, by investors from outside the European Union. This, in itself, already means a factor of concern, particularly for countries like Portugal, but it is a factor of even greater concern, because this, together with the policy of facilitating mergers and acquisitions, naturally refers our country to a very difficult role in dealing with foreign direct investment, if it is conditioned by the European Union. I would like to know what the opinion of the Socialist Party is on this matter.

Ladies and gentlemen, 20 years ago, Mr Barroso proclaimed the liberalisation of the energy sector, saying that competition would bring down prices. Exactly the opposite happened. Today, we are told that the energy transition and the reduction of energy prices will be achieved through further liberalisation. They are deceiving us again, choosing good pretexts to hide bad politics. The situation in Portugal is an example of this. The production of energy from renewable sources in Portugal is already much more significant than that produced from non-renewable sources. However, the European price formation mechanism makes us pay for energy at the cost of the most expensive non-renewable energy sources. The consequences are in sight. We have the highest percentage in the European Union of people who cannot adequately heat their homes. Small businesses are heavily penalised for their energy bills, but economic groups in the energy sector multiply their profits. We need an energy policy that serves the people and national development. It is not enough to invoke the energy transition. It is necessary to intervene in the formation of energy prices and take public control of the strategic sector.

Honourable Member, you have come here to attack the production of energy from renewable sources and I want to ask you a very direct question, from the Portuguese case. Portugal currently produces more energy from renewable sources than from non-renewable sources. But the European price formation mechanism makes us pay the price of energy at the cost of the price of energy produced from non-renewable sources. Why do you not call into question the European price formation mechanism? Is it because it favours energy groups and the far right side with the interests of those energy groups? Is that why the far right does not dare to attack the rules that favour this business, which is done at the expense of people’s poverty, at the expense of the ruin of economies?

Mrs von der Leyen, voting against this European Commission means rejecting its political programme. People need peace, they need cooperation. They need social cohesion, better wages and pensions, access to housing, health, education, social protection, responding to environmental problems. The Commission insists on policies of militarism, war and confrontation; policies that deny social and labour rights and turn into business all the conditions on which a fair and dignified life depends for those who work or have worked a lifetime. Peoples need economies geared towards meeting their needs, the exploitation of productive resources and national development. The Commission insists on so-called competitiveness policies, with more liberalisation of markets, more privatisations and even more favouring of economic groups, multinationals and banks. People need more democracy, social progress and development. Affirming this alternative that serves the people, we reject the Commission and its policies.