Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner Mînzatu, we agree with the idea that criminal justice systems should evolve in their modern conception, in order to place the resocialisation of individuals at the centre of their choices - meaning the use of the criminal justice system as an instrument for all citizens to comply with the rules and norms of community life - and, of course, we support the idea that the death penalty should be rejected and abolished, because it is not compatible with this modern and humanist conception of criminal justice systems. We even consider that the Portuguese experience (Portugal was one of the first countries in the world to abolish the death penalty in 1867) is quite significant and revealing of this humanist conception that we share. We believe that every effort must be made towards the abolition of the death penalty at international level, not only with the national decisions that must, of course, be taken in this direction, but with initiatives that, at international level and, in particular, within the framework of the United Nations, can also be developed in this direction, namely by raising the awareness of the countries that are part of the United Nations Organization to sign and accompany the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with a view to the abolition of the death penalty, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. We also believe that there can be initiatives on the part of the European Union to this end. There have been resolutions with this intention in the past, and we believe it is important that these policy initiatives can be developed. It seems to us absolutely essential that, in order for such initiatives to be successful, there should not be a double standard in the assessment of the international situation, which unfortunately makes it possible to note that several countries around the world continue not only to provide for the death penalty, but also to apply the death penalty, including the United States of America - which, incomprehensibly, are not mentioned in many of the speeches made in the plenary of the European Parliament, but which, of course, being one of the countries which not only provides for, but also applies (in a very significant way) the death penalty, should not also be removed from the list of countries to which such initiatives should be addressed, with a view to the effective abolition of the death penalty. And we believe that, in addition to initiatives aimed at abolishing the death penalty, with its withdrawal from the provision of penal systems, initiatives should also be developed towards a universal moratorium on the execution of capital punishment in the countries that have provided for it for those who have been sentenced to it.

Madam President, Commissioner Mînzatu, on the European Pillar of Social Rights action plan, three issues are absolutely decisive. Firstly, to ensure that the necessary measures are in place to address the social problems affecting workers and peoples within the European Union; secondly, to ensure that they are effective measures and that they do not stop at proclamations of intent; and, thirdly, to ensure proper coordination with policies at national level, which are the responsibility of the Member States, to ensure that they are implemented and that social problems are tackled. Valuing work and workers, their living conditions, their wages, the regulation of their working hours, issues related to ensuring access to housing - affordable housing - by expanding public supply, and ensuring measures to combat poverty towards its eradication are three of the essential aspects that this action plan must contain, and it cannot merely point out the path that needs to be taken. It should identify effective measures to address the various needs that exist in these dimensions and ensure adequate financial resources, either through the Multiannual Financial Framework or through the use of other financing instruments, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the timeframe of which should be extended, particularly to address housing needs.

Mr Vicent, you spoke about housing and the need for effective measures to address the housing problem. That is one of the dimensions that is specifically mentioned in this oral question on the European Pillar of Social Rights. And the question I ask you is this: was it not important for there to be additional and targeted funding in the next Multiannual Financial Framework to address housing issues, particularly to increase the supply of public housing? And do you not also consider it important that the RRP funds - from the Recovery and Resilience Plan - could be expanded so that, with their use, with a longer timeframe for their use, they could also be mobilised to address the housing problem?

Madam President, Mr Costa, the conclusions of the last Council meeting - a meeting that was just over a month ago, but it seems that it was an eternity ago - are, in fact, conclusions of a meeting disconnected from the reality of the peoples living within the European Union. We continue to see that neither the difficulties in housing, nor the difficulties in accessing health, education, social protection, nor the problems of deteriorating living conditions or rising prices, none of this continues to be of concern to the European Council, which continues to relegate to the background the economic and social problems that mark the lives of peoples. On the contrary, we see militarism and war, Mercosur, measures related to the so-called competitiveness policy, all pointing towards more and more measures to favour multinationals and economic groups, to the detriment of small and medium-sized enterprises, to the detriment of the exploitation of the countries' productive capacities, to the detriment of national development. And, once again, the insistence on obstacles to a peaceful solution, a political solution to the war in Ukraine, with the European Union insisting on its prolongation, with a further EUR 90 billion to prolong the war. These are completely wrong choices, Mr. Costa.

Mrs Riba i Giner, you spoke in your speech about the damage that has resulted from options being made for dismantling production, dismantling the response to some of the people's needs, particularly in relation to food issues. And my question to you about the conclusions of this last meeting of the European Council is whether you do not think that it is dramatic that there is no reference to the response to the economic and social needs of peoples, whether in food matters, housing, access to health or other issues that mark such great difficulties in the lives of peoples.

Madam President, the report on the 28th legal regime that Parliament discusses and approves is a report that leaves us with many concerns. The 28th Law is an offshore Federal law addressed to multinationals to create a set of facilities in relation to tax matters, in relation to administrative matters, including in relation to labour legislation, jeopardizing not only workers' rights, which will be weakened through the 28th legal regime, but also jeopardizing the survival conditions for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which will continue to deal with a set of difficulties for their activity - which, of course, multinationals will no longer have to deal with. This proposal for a 28th legal regime is a federal solution to guarantee multinationals a green path that allows them to move beyond national laws, disregarding what are absolutely essential parameters, not only of an economic nature, but also of a labour nature, and is therefore unacceptable to us.

Madam President, this report on critical medicines raises a number of concerns, first of all, that we are dealing with an issue that is absolutely fundamental to the defence of citizens' rights, which is the accessibility of medicines, particularly critical medicines. And the key issue in this regard is to enable each Member State, in accordance with its productive capacity and by developing that productive capacity, by developing the science and research that is needed, to be able to ensure access to medicines for its citizens. This report is based on a completely different basis from that, which is the basis on which, today, the Member States are held hostage by the pharmaceutical industry - particularly the multinationals, which decide at will what profit margins they want to make, using an issue that is absolutely fundamental for any country, which is to guarantee access to medicines for its citizens. We have had the dramatic example of this with the COVID-19 pandemic and, unfortunately, the path that this report points out is not to free the states and peoples of the European Union from those shackles that make access to medicines difficult.

Madam President, Madam High Representative, Kaja Callas, the US military aggression against Venezuela and the kidnapping of the Venezuelan President must be condemned as a violation of international law and the principles of the United Nations Charter, a violation of the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people. The answer must be to demand respect for international law, respect for the sovereignty of peoples and states, and the release of the Venezuelan president. The lack of condemnation by the European Union of this action by the United States constitutes a position of complicity with this violation of international law and submission to the United States, with serious consequences from the point of view of the international situation, and reveals an untenable double standard. It is the requirement of compliance with international law, respect for international law and sovereignty of peoples that can contradict the sense of the rules-based international order that is translated in this action against Venezuela. This international order is an order that does not respect international law and that operates on the basis of the rules that are imposed by force, by those who have military force to determine them. This cannot be the future of humanity.

Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, you have made a speech defending all means to combat Iran, which means a position of complicity, not only with the bombings that were carried out by Israel and the United States last June, but also a position of complicity with an attack that appears to be imminent on the part of the United States on Iran. And the question I ask you is really this: Do you really believe that it is possible, in some circumstances, to build a democracy based on bombing and military attacks and aggression against foreign countries? Is that really your conception of democracy?

Mr President, High Representative Kaja Kallas, the aggressive and exploitative offensive of US imperialism is a threat to Greenland. The submission of the European Union to the United States increases the risk of this threat materialising, and the double standards of the European Union weakens the ability to defend the people of Greenland from these threats. Trump's threats must be met with a firm response of demand, respect for international law, respect for the sovereignty of peoples, refusal to use force and the threat of war as criteria for international relations. But the European Union is in a difficult position to provide such a firm response. The Commissioner spoke to us today about sovereignty, and the problem is to know where these criteria were for demanding respect for sovereignty and international law in the face of the occupation of Palestine, in the face of the war of aggression and occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, the aggression of Libya, Syria. Where were these criteria in the face of the aggression against Venezuela? The problem, and I conclude, Mr President, is that this attitude of submission to the United States for so long now makes it difficult to straighten the spine to give the firm answer that is needed.

Mr President, Mr Hansen, my question to you is: in the face of the threats that Donald Trump has made in relation to Greenland, and after the violation of the sovereignty of international law in relation to Venezuela and all the other threats that he has made in relation to other countries, what indeed should be the response of the European Union? Is it in the framework of submission and subservience to the United States that the European Union can find a way to convince Donald Trump? For those who have advocated sanctions, restrictive measures, the refusal of economic and political relations in other circumstances, what will be, after all, the firm response that the European Union should give - in your opinion, of course - to the Trump administration in the face of these threats that it is now making to Greenland?

Mr President, Commissioner, farmers have reason to protest against Mercosur, and the European Commission should listen to those reasons. Farmers are protesting because this agreement means a threat to the liquidation of tens of thousands of family farms, to the reduction of farmers' incomes, to the accelerated abandonment of production, to the worsening of food dependence. These consequences are dramatic in agriculture, but they are also dramatic in industry and services, particularly for small and medium-sized producers, who, oriented towards the internal market, may be threatened with unfavourable competition. Although the agreement was signed on the 17th, the moment is not to throw the towel to the ground, and the proposal we make is to act in three directions: first, suspend the decision on the provisional entry into force of the Mercosur Agreement; second, to ask national parliaments to give their opinion on such an agreement, either through the ratification process or through other legal instruments; and, thirdly, not to move forward with the Mercosur process, in its regulation or in its implementation, without such action by national parliaments to defend farmers and other productive sectors.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, there is no woman who takes lightly a voluntary interruption of pregnancy. And it is important that, by making that choice, that woman should not be confronted with the inhumanity of having to clandestinely voluntarily terminate her pregnancy, jeopardising her health, her life, in truly inhuman conditions. And for this, it is necessary to guarantee legal conditions, safe, with medical support and with the necessary social support so that this voluntary termination of pregnancy can be done safely. We voted in favour of this initiative because it points in this direction, and we want to stress the importance of making the appropriate investment so that, in addition to the law providing for the legal possibility of voluntary termination of pregnancy in a safe manner, it can be made in health services with universal and free access, of quality, with all the public investment that needs to be made in health services – particularly in countries such as Portugal, where, although this possibility is provided for by law, there are currently no dignified conditions, from the point of view of the National Health Service, for it to materialise.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are voting in favour of this report on artificial intelligence in the workplace, because we believe that it points to a sense that seems to us to be correct in protecting workers and their rights in relation to the use of artificial intelligence. But we want to underline three aspects. Firstly, it seems to us that this regulation must be made at national level, because it is for the Member States to deal with the regulation of these matters, protecting workers and their rights. Secondly, measures and guidelines that could be considered at European Union level should not undermine regulation or serve as a pretext for deregulation or a reduction in regulatory requirements in relation to these matters. Thirdly, we want to underline a contradiction between this sense of protection that is affirmed today in this report adopted by the European Parliament and the measures that were adopted here at the last plenary session – which aim to amend the General Data Protection Regulation and also the Artificial Intelligence Act in a way that undermines workers’ rights and interests.

Madam President, Commissioner, the decision to end the import of gas from the Russian Federation has no economic rationality, no environmental rationality, it is only the consequence of a geopolitical and geostrategic choice by the European Union to place itself in a position of submission and subordination to the United States, with ruinous economic costs and heavy social impacts that the EU lightly imposes on the peoples. It makes no economic sense to dispense with gas that is bought at lower prices to go and buy gas from the United States, at prices three or four times more expensive. It makes no sense, from an environmental point of view, to replace Russian gas with American gas from fracking. Nor is it possible to replace gas with renewable energy sources, as the European Commission has proposed and as it has justified this decision from 2027. This decision only serves to fuel the propaganda of the continuation of the war in Ukraine and only serves to fuel this strategy, and this strategic choice of the European Union, of submission to the United States, at all the costs that it entails for the peoples within the European Union.

Madam President, on 26 November, a self-proclaimed high-ranking military command seized power and undermined the constitutional order of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau and the functioning of its institutions. The announcement of the results of the legislative and presidential elections, which was scheduled for November 27, was prevented. The campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Fernando Dias da Costa was raided and Domingos Simões Pereira, president of the National People's Assembly of Guinea-Bissau and leader of the PAIGC, was kidnapped, as well as other Guinean politicians and citizens. These actions deserve our strongest condemnation. Expressing our solidarity with the Guinean people, we call for the immediate restoration of democratic constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau, an end to the persecutions and the immediate release of Domingos Simões Pereira and all Guinean politicians and citizens who have been unlawfully and arbitrarily detained, and full respect for the legitimate will of the Guinean people – as expressed in the recent legislative and presidential elections held on 23 November – with the announcement of the election results. We also call on the European Commission to review its policies towards Guinea-Bissau, ensuring that cooperation funds are not used to strengthen military or authoritarian structures, but to promote balanced development, education, health and food sovereignty. Stability in West Africa will only be possible when African peoples can freely determine their own destiny, without external pressures or neoliberal conditioning.

Mr President, Commissioner Šefčovič, the next meeting of the European Council is announced with great criticism of Trump, but with the same position of submission and subordination of the European Union to the United States, the same contempt for the needs of the peoples within the EU, the same complicity with the genocide and the occupation of Palestine. If the European Commission and the European Council want to make a difference and distance themselves from Trump, they have a good remedy: Change the policies. Make a difference by looking at the economy from the point of view of the needs of peoples and not the profits of multinationals, giving priority to increasing wages, access to housing, health, solving the social problems that afflict peoples' lives, rather than turning people's needs into business and a source of profit; building solutions for peace and collective security, rather than spending people’s resources on militarisation and war; Acting to put an end to the genocide, Israel's colonial policy and giving concrete form to the State of Palestine. The right way is to respond to the needs of workers and peoples, not to submit to the United States.

Mr Di Rupo, you spoke about the solution of mobilising Russian assets to prolong the war in Ukraine. What the European Union is proposing is to insist on prolonging the war in Ukraine by spending more than has been spent so far on prolonging the war in Ukraine. And the questions I ask you are two: firstly, whether it believes that the priority should be to prolong the war – not to end it – with a political solution that guarantees the collective security of the whole of Europe; and, secondly, whether these resources are no longer needed to meet the housing and social needs of peoples.

Mr Berendsen, you are astonished at the arrogance of the Trump administration in its national security strategy towards the European Union. I think I should not be surprised, because that is the consequence of the subaltern and submissive way in which the European Union has confronted American interests. That is the consequence of who accepts Trump’s imposition of increased military spending for NATO or who – as Mrs von der Leyen did – accepts Trump’s imposition of tariffs and trade policy. And the question I ask you is: If we continue in this position of submission, does this attitude of Donald Trump end?

Mr President, Commissioner, valuing work and workers must be a criterion and a benchmark for development. There is no country that can be considered developed with its workers devalued, despised, without meeting their needs. However, the policies of national governments and the coverage that the European Union gives to these policies go exactly the opposite way. In a number of countries, including my own country, Portugal, processes are underway to amend labour laws that attack workers' rights, facilitate dismissals, make employment precarious, attack maternity and paternity rights, and jeopardise the reconciliation of family and personal life of workers and their working hours. These are options that run absolutely counter to the sense of development and social justice, which we must challenge. The general strike that took place in Portugal last week provides a strong response from Portuguese workers in rejecting these policies and confronts the Portuguese government – but also the European Union – with the need for another path that is by valuing work and workers as a criterion for development.

Madam President, EUR 800 billion in rearmament spending gives the magnitude of the drift of this warmongering madness and militarisation of the European Union to which we are being directed. The effort with the agitation of ghosts and boogeymen regarding external security risks is the example of the investment being made in propaganda to sustain the diversion to war, to the arms race, of resources that are still needed to build houses and to respond to unemployment, the need for wage increases, economic and social problems that affect the peoples in all the countries that make up the European Union. A legislative package to create more privileges and benefits for large arms multinationals is truly the goal behind the use of this figure in the package. omnibus. More privileges and more benefits for the big multinationals who make war the engine of their profits, war the engine of the concentration of their wealth. The path of militarisation of the European Union is a path that does not serve the peoples and jeopardizes their future.