What José spoke about.

25

Apr

2024

PT Speech

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Statements by the President

Madam President, it is a beautiful coincidence that on the last day of this Parliament we celebrate 50 years of the first day of Portuguese democracy and we also celebrate the liberation of Italy from fascism. And these memories, this remembrance, this history, must remind us all of the tasks that remain to be accomplished in order to build more complete democracies, more integral democracies. Tha…

24

Apr

2024

PT Speech

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Recent attempts to deny dictatorships and the risk of Europe returning to totalitarianism (debate)

Mr President, in this term of office we will have the beautiful coincidence of having the last day of work of this European Parliament on the day that marks the first day of Portuguese democracy, 50 years ago. In a democracy, we cannot accept this conservative wave that wants to take away women's rights, which we thought were irreversible. We cannot accept that workers may be afraid to organize or…

23

Apr

2024

PT Speech

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European Disability Card and European Parking Card for persons with disabilities - European Disability Card and European Parking Card for persons with disabilities for third country nationals legally residing in a Member State (joint debate - Disability cards)

Mr President, Parliament has been a force in this process for increasing the scope of the disability card, for ensuring that it is free of charge, in the specific case of the disability card, for ensuring information on platforms accessible to people with disabilities about their rights, and also for ensuring that disabled people's organisations are represented. Parliament therefore played a very …

23

Apr

2024

PT Speech

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Effective coordination of economic policies and multilateral budgetary surveillance - Speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure – amending Regulation - Requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States – amending Directive (joint debate – Economic governance)

Mr President, the proposal we are discussing today has inspired a speech by the Commission and also by Parliament, which is a festival of misleading advertising. We are told that these rules will be less procyclical, that is, better suited to facing economic crises, that they will promote investment and that they will increase the democratic legitimacy of fiscal policies. Each of these statements …

7

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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Implementation report on the EU LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025 (continuation of debate)

Madam President, as has already been said, this report has been drawn up in consultation with LGBT movements and it is very important that this is a principle that guides all Union policies, because these movements work against discrimination, often in the most difficult contexts, and work so that all families can have the same rights. And that's the difference with the extreme-right. Those who de…

7

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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Implementation report on the EU LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025 (debate)

Madam President, in 2020, the European Commission published the First LGBTQI+ Equality Strategy. This strategy was considered a historic milestone and received with hope by LGBT people and movements. That strategy must be effective and not just a statement of intent, and this report goes in that direction. I would like to begin by thanking the rapporteurs of the other groups, staff and the assista…

6

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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Amendments to the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and to the Directive relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITSD) (debate)

Mr President, this report is part of an attempt to give more and more weight to deregulated finance and capital markets, to the detriment of regulated and capitalised banking. Moreover, this trend adds to the tendency to tie states and their ability to promote public investment, fuelling the illusion that an increasingly deregulated and increasingly volatile financial system can compensate for thi…

6

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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Quality traineeships in the EU (debate)

Mr President, it was ten years ago that the European Council adopted a resolution on traineeships within the European Union. That resolution is not binding and, therefore, many Member States have continued with exactly the same practices, which means that, throughout Europe, there are young people who continue to have to live at the expense of their families while gaining experience, because they …

6

Feb

2024

PT Speech

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Water crisis and droughts in the EU as a consequence of the global climate crisis and the need for a sustainable, resilient water strategy for Europe (debate)

Mr President, one of the causes of drought in the Algarve will undoubtedly be the advent of climate change. However, that is not the only reason why we are witnessing a water disaster in this region today. The fact is that the Common Agricultural Policy has established ecosystem services and the sustainability of agricultural holdings as criteria for granting subsidies and support. But in Portugal…

18

Jan

2024

PT Question

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Recent ecological catastrophe involving plastic pellet losses and its impact on micro plastic pollution in the maritime and coastal habitats (debate)

Mrs Miranda, first of all, our solidarity with Galicia and its people for what has happened. But I wanted to talk a little bit about the answer. In fact, you said the mayor of Muros is here. We wanted to know if there was support from the Galician Government, because, in the Portuguese press, there were reports that the cleaning was being done by the municipalities, by environmental activists, by …

17

Jan

2024

PT Speech

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Review of the economic governance framework (debate)

Mr President, when the process of revising the rules of economic governance was initiated, the Commission promised that we would have new rules that would promote public investment, respect the sovereignty and democratic choices of European citizens. All misleading advertising. These rules have a set of criteria, but the key – which guides countries’ fiscal trajectories – is expenditure. In other …

15

Jan

2024

PT Speech

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Amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) - Amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) (joint debate - Markets in financial instruments regulations)

Madam President, this report is a good example of the habit, which has developed, of under-regulating the financial system, doing enough to be doing something and not doing enough to be effective. This is the case for energy derivatives – a sector that already had impacts on energy prices and people’s portfolio, but had aggravated impacts in the context of the war in Ukraine. Although some positiv…

13

Dec

2023

PT Speech

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Preparation of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 (debate)

Madam President, the alliance between the Socialists and the right-wing groups to return austerity policy to the European Union must also pass through the Council. And the Council will have to assess whether it even wants to go back to the time when austerity policy has produced negative results at all levels, including on the sustainability of public accounts, and also whether it wants to go back…

12

Dec

2023

PT Speech

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Parliament’s call for the right to disconnect - three years on (debate)

Mr President, three years ago, this Parliament adopted a legislative own-initiative report aimed at introducing minimum standards of decency in remote working relationships, protecting family life, protecting working hours, the mental health of workers and seeking to prevent labour abuse. It was not a perfect report, but in the 25th hour, an agreement between the socialists and the right created a…

11

Dec

2023

PT Speech

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Order of business

Madam President, the Left Group proposes this debate in Parliament, in Parliament's plenary, because the revision of the rules of economic governance is an issue that will decisively affect the future not only of economic policies, but, by extension, of the response of social policies, environmental policies and energy transition, social policies, the fight against poverty, public services, health…

18

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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Mental health at work (debate)

Madam President, the European Parliament's report on mental health in the world of work has shown that new technologies, distance communication, have brought risks from the point of view of labour rights that we thought were guaranteed, namely the right to have a working time, a working day that has a beginning and an end. But it also showed us that the system of Big Brother The work that is takin…

17

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (debate)

Madam President, according to 2022 data, there are 21.6% of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the European Union. In this context, with more than 100 million people affected by this scourge, the Commission's target of 15 million reduction in the number of poor by 2030 is even embarrassing, but even more embarrassing is that these numbers have not fallen in the short term. This strat…

4

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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European green bonds (debate)

Mr President, the first problem with this regulation on European green bonds is that it refers to the taxonomy, which means that we will have green bonds to finance natural gas and nuclear energy. The second problem is that the application of this regulation is voluntary, which means that we will continue to have green bonds that do not comply with what is set out in this regulation for green bond…

4

Oct

2023

PT Speech

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Decent Housing for All (topical debate)

Madam President, the European Parliament serves to discuss European solutions in its competences for housing; it does not serve governments to atone for the sins of their own inaction. It is not worth coming here to complain about market failures, a government that maintains the deregulation of the rental market approved by the right and that led to rents skyrocketing in Portugal. Who comes here a…

12

Jul

2023

PT Speech

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Need to adopt the “Unshell” Directive on rules to prevent the misuse of shell entities for tax purposes (debate)

Mr President, we are here to discuss a directive on the misuse of letterbox companies, an expression which suggests that there is good use of letterbox companies. It doesn't exist. The shell companies serve to promote tax evasion, when they do not serve for worse things. And so what we should be discussing here would be a much stronger proposal to put an end to this instrument of promoting tax fra…

12

Jul

2023

PT Speech

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Tax the rich (topical debate)

Madam President, for decades liberal economic policies have managed to bring about an extraordinary shift from income from labour to income from capital. In the same period, according to the IMF, taxation went the same way, ever softer on capital income, ever heavier on labor income. And today, the ultra-millionaires of this planet flaunt utterly obscene fortunes, announce their tourist trips to s…

14

Jun

2023

PT Speech

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Lessons learnt from the Pandora Papers and other revelations (debate)

Madam President, anyone who listens to these debates may always think that everyone in this Parliament is very concerned about tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax fraud, but that is not really the case. This is a debate that divides this Parliament and it is enough to see the positions that right-wing groups systematically take on the issues of tax evasion. First, never say the names of the rulers,…

13

Jun

2023

PT Speech

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Quality traineeships in the EU (debate)

Madam President, anyone who has an unpaid internship is paying to work. You have expenses, you have already invested a lot in your training, and if you do not have a family to support you, you will often not be able to access this possibility to start your working life. That is the reality of hundreds of thousands of young people in the European Union. And the debate we've had here is an example o…

12

Jun

2023

PT Speech

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Competition policy - annual report 2022 (debate)

Mr President, the inflation crisis and its causes have clearly shown the limitations of competition policy and discourse in the European institutions. Today, we know that it is at the level of profits and cartelisation in strategic sectors that is the most dynamic factor behind inflation. And yet the Commission has been recording, monitoring, flagging, showing concern and doing absolutely nothing.…

10

May

2023

PT Speech

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Roadmap on a Social Europe: two years after Porto (debate)

Mr President, at the Porto Social Summit, and in the months before and after it, very ambitious proclamations were made about the European Pillar of Social Rights. But the truth is that in many debates, this pillar, a term that promised much in the future of European construction, has proved to be a very fragile pillar. First of all, in the modest objectives that have been set for combating povert…