What Francisco spoke about.

6

May

2025

PT Speech

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An urgent assessment of the applicability of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) with Cuba (debate)

Madam President, Madam High Commissioner, let us be serious and clear. The nature of the Cuban regime is absolutely indisputable: a one-party regime that criminalises all forms of political dissent and social protest; a regime whose new penal code is even more restrictive in relation to the promotion of civil rights; a regime that undermines all fundamental freedoms and constantly monitors what is…

6

May

2025

PT Speech

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A unified EU response to unjustified US trade measures and global trade opportunities for the EU (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the new American leadership presents itself with a clear purpose - to destroy the global order based on international law and replace it with a transactional vision of the relationship between states where, inevitably, the strongest dominate and impose. We must make it clear that protectionist mercantilism has never been and will not be the solution, and that the tariff…

2

Apr

2025

PT Speech

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Execution spree in Iran and the confirmation of the death sentences of activists Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, here we are again today, unfortunately, to talk about one of the most atrocious and violent regimes in the contemporary world: The Iranian theocratic regime. And to talk about people who have been sentenced to death and who have been sentenced to death for one reason only: because they dare to fight, with limitless heroics, this barbaric regime, this regime that oppress…

2

Apr

2025

PT Answer

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Delivering on the EU Roma Strategy and the fight against discrimination in the EU (debate)

Mr Oliveira, I fully agree with you and it is clear that this contributes to this hate speech against the Roma. I just want to remind you of something very important: in the penultimate Portuguese Government, a minister, who is now a Member of Parliament, our colleague here in the European Parliament, Ana Catarina Mendes, led a process with a view to carrying out a very extensive study on the situ…

2

Apr

2025

PT Speech

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Delivering on the EU Roma Strategy and the fight against discrimination in the EU (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the Roma communities unfortunately continue to suffer from structural discrimination throughout Europe. They are denied access to fundamental rights such as education, health, housing and justice. Despite a number of EU strategies, including the Rome 2011 Strategy, the risks of exclusion remain very high. These communities are often victims of forced evictions and face …

1

Apr

2025

PT Speech

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Targeted attacks against Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – defending religious freedom and security (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, the atrocities committed against the Congolese indiscriminately must have consequences for those responsible. These atrocities are unequivocally war crimes and crimes against humanity. And one of the biggest culprits in the escalation of violence, which is particularly cruel to women, is Rwanda – about which no one has the slightest doubt – which, moreover, is playin…

1

Apr

2025

PT Speech

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Safeguarding the access to democratic media, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the European Union is not just about policies, plans, strategies, agreements, regulations and directives. A union between peoples, such as ours, also needs symbols and the symbolic dimension of Europe has been sidelined for the benefit of other priorities. Radio Free Europe is one of the symbols of European identity and memory, because it was created in the post-war per…

1

Apr

2025

PT Speech

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Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2024 (debate)

Madam President, Madam Vice-President of the Commission, this is a particularly important moment in the life of this Parliament. We cannot ignore the fact that human rights, viewed as universal rights, had their origin precisely here in Europe, in the year 1789, at the time of the great French Revolution. This was the first time that we defined that human rights, although applied to a country, had…

12

Mar

2025

PT Speech

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Frozen Russian assets (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the times are very demanding for the European Union. All the answers and all the solutions to the world's serious problems are expected of her today. It is expected that she will act with immediate readiness, that she will replace overnight those who, as is the case with the United States, have backtracked on their commitments to security, to humanitarian aid. And many …

13

Feb

2025

PT Answer

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EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (debate)

Thank you very much for the question. The agreement, in essence, as I have already said, is an agreement that guarantees and protects the various European economic sectors. Particularly in the field of agriculture, we have to have this debate. Let's see who wins and eventually who loses. If there are some European agricultural sectors that are going to lose, of course we have to find compensation …

13

Feb

2025

PT Answer

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EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (debate)

Mr Oliveira, do not underestimate the democratic importance of this European Parliament. The agreement will be discussed and voted on here in the European Parliament; and this Parliament is also the expression of the will of the various countries, of the various peoples, of the various European states. The agreement is, in my view, a good agreement, it is an agreement that protects, in essence, Eu…

13

Feb

2025

PT Speech

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EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, this agreement is good for the European Union politically, economically and commercially. The European Union has every interest in strengthening its links with the Mercosur countries. We have deep historical, cultural and political affinities with this region. We are talking about a set of democracies. We must deepen these relations and nothing better than moving for…

12

Feb

2025

PT Speech

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Repression by the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua, targeting human rights defenders, political opponents and religious communities in particular

Commissioner, like so many here perhaps, I was a young man in Portugal, a teenager, when I followed the fall of dictator Somoza and the victory of the Sandinistas, and I remember well the great hope that this created in all of us. But we quickly realized that we were facing an authoritarian system. Unfortunately, in the name of socialism, a dictatorship was in fact being established, and we cannot…

11

Feb

2025

PT Speech

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Protecting the system of international justice and its institutions, in particular the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner and Minister, the sanctions ordered by President Trump against judges and officials of the International Criminal Court may mean, in practice, the end of this court, which was created to enforce the Rome Statute and to try the most atrocious crimes of which human beings are capable. The end of the International Criminal Court would represent an unacceptable civilisati…

11

Feb

2025

PT Speech

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Escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, what is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo today is yet another tragic chapter in the history of violence suffered by Africans. The report of the atrocities that come to us from the region is especially cruel, because they have as one of the main targets women and girls subject to rape, as a systematic weapon of war and affirmation about opponents. We must en…

11

Feb

2025

PT Speech

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Wider comprehensive EU-Middle East Strategy (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, the European Union has historically shown great difficulty in dealing with the problems of the Middle East, which is understandable given the very nature of the European Union, which consists of several states with different and, in some cases, conflicting foreign policies. But never, as today, has a more active presence of the European Union in the Middle East been …

22

Jan

2025

PT Speech

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Systematic repression of human rights in Iran, notably the cases of Pakhshan Azizi and Wrisha Moradi, and the taking of EU citizens as hostages

Madam President, Commissioner, I rise in this debate to refer specifically to the situation of the members of the mujahedeen organisation of the Iranian people. As you will know, several members of this organization are being held in Tehran's Evin prison. Many of them are survivors and witnesses of the mass executions that took place in the late 1980s in Iran by the infamous death commissions. Mem…

21

Jan

2025

PT Speech

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Humanitarian crisis in Sudan (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, Sudan is still not as visible in this Parliament as it should be. Unfortunately, the European Union's commitment to the resolution of this catastrophic war continues to fall short of what is necessary, because no one is unaware that this war is probably the deadliest of all times. Despite this, the European Union seems oblivious to the macabre geopolitical interests at …

21

Jan

2025

PT Speech

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

Mr President, Commissioner, in a democracy the rules are very clear: Those who win the elections have the legitimacy to exercise power and those who have the most votes win the elections. And so today, in Venezuela, the reality is very simple: there is a usurper installed in power and there is a legitimate president prevented from landing in his own country. That is the reality. That is why this P…

21

Jan

2025

PT Speech

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Need for actions to address the continued oppression and fake elections in Belarus (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the Belarusian regime is a puppet regime that caninely serves Putin's imperialist narrative. In a few days, a new electoral farce will take place for dictator Lukashenko to perpetrate himself in power. The European Union must not let the world forget the political opponents who fill Belarus' prisons, starting with Mikalai Khilo, who has been detained for almost a year o…

17

Dec

2024

PT Speech

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Toppling of the Syrian regime, its geopolitical implications and the humanitarian situation in the region (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner and Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, the images that have come to us from Saydnaya prison are a representation of the absolute evil of which human beings are sometimes capable. Unfortunately, absolute evil does not necessarily succeed good. And the Syrian reality is too complex and painful for us to look to the future with optimism. But let us look with some hope. T…

28

Nov

2024

PT Speech

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Strengthening children’s rights in the EU - 35th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ensuring that every child has access to fundamental rights is not only an ethical duty of all of us, but is the key to a fairer, more tolerant and brighter world. But children are still the ones who suffer the most from the physical and psychological violence with which adults punish each other. The children of Gaza, massacred without pity or pity, the Ukrainian childre…

27

Nov

2024

PT Speech

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The shrinking space for civil society in Cambodia, in particular the case of the labour rights organisation CENTRAL

Mr President, Commissioner, Europe is the continent that takes the best care of labour and trade union rights. They were, as we know, rights won at the cost of blood, sweat and many tears. But today European democracies benefit from products from countries where these rights are not yet consolidated or even under attack. And this dilemma, as seen in the case of Cambodia, also arises in relation to…

27

Nov

2024

PT Answer

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Promoting a favourable framework for venture capital financing and safe foreign direct investments in the EU (debate)

Thank you very much, Mr Oliveira, for your question. As I began by saying, we agree with the diagnosis contained in the Draghi Report. Solutions are matters that should now be discussed. And this is one of them, it is a matter that must be discussed. I believe that we must find a solution that links European priorities with national priorities. I do not, of course, think that the national states s…

27

Nov

2024

PT Speech

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Promoting a favourable framework for venture capital financing and safe foreign direct investments in the EU (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, in this House, in this Parliament, we may differ and we will certainly differ in the solutions, but we do not disagree with the diagnosis outlined in the Draghi report. A Europe with signs of economic decline, very low levels of investment, a loss of international relevance and complex demographic and geopolitical challenges. In this new global economy of rapid trans…