Speeches

Mr President, when several petitions come to the European Parliament from teachers who do not see their rights enshrined, who do not receive fair wages, who do not feel recognition for their work, something is very bad in the European Union. The right to education is a fundamental right, the real guarantor of equal opportunities, and the European Union's successive pressures on national budgets are undermining it. Endless working hours, few training opportunities, inadequate pay, lack of teachers are just some of the problems reported. In Portugal, teachers' salaries have not been updated for years and it is slow to do justice to the recovery of their service time. There are many teachers who literally walk around the house, who do not see their contractual ties recognized, who spend years in precariousness and have been systematically ignored by successive governments. The demands of European teachers are fair. Let us be able to give them answers and ask the Member States to fulfil their obligations.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we have seldom seen such a clear demonstration of contempt for people and for people's suffering, as we have just seen, but that is it – it is good to make things clear. I would like to begin by thanking Mrs Miranda for the pressure to hold this debate, which is very important, as is being shown. The Galician people are once again being the victim of an environmental disaster. There are 26 tons of small pellets that have entered the sea. As happened in the Prestige oil spill almost 20 years ago, the inertia and incompetence of the Galician PP authorities is unacceptable. The pollution of our marine ecosystems by microplastics cannot go unpunished, either in Galicia or anywhere on the planet. The environmental impacts are gigantic and will continue to extend. It is estimated that, until spring, the pellets will continue to reach the coast, not only in Galicia, but also in Portugal and France. We therefore need ambitious measures to prevent microplastic contamination and pollution and to prevent these situations from continuing to exist. And thank you for the clarity of the Spanish right-wing MPs, not only for the confirmation of environmental denialism, but for the total contempt for the people who are suffering.

Mr President, 24 000 people have been killed – 70 % of them women and children – more than 60 000 injured, more than 8 000 missing, journalists and aid workers targeted by the military. Since October 8, Gaza has been massacred. The indiscriminate bombing and blockade of Israel on the arrival of humanitarian aid, in territory already devastated by the illegal occupation and blockade, has caused an unprecedented tragedy. Everything is missing in Gaza: from basic services to health, water, food, electricity. What is happening in Gaza has a name: Genocide. It has an author: the Government of Israel. He has several accomplices: all those who hesitate to enforce something as basic as human rights. We condemn the bombings in Gaza and the massacre of the population, UN workers, journalists, doctors, artists carried out by the Israeli army, in continuous violation of international law. We demand an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire. We call on Member States to join South Africa in trying to bring some of the dignity lost in this international silence.

Mr President, lithium literally moves mountains and in some cases, like Portugal, even overthrows governments. Therefore, all the rigour, all the demand, all the scrutiny regarding the exploitation and the provisioning of critical raw materials will always be little to ensure the public interest. But in the face of this evidence, what does the European Union do? It establishes as a rule that the economic interest of a few may override the public interest of all. The interests of a minority are converted into privilege regimes that attack the rights of populations and the environment. This creates a legal subterfuge in the European Union that allows unlimited predation of resources and the planet and continued disregard for human rights. No, this is not, nor can it be the way.

Mr President, without any condescension and with total condemnation of the barbarity of Hamas' terrorist attacks, the least that decency and justice can demand is that we have the same rigour and the same demand in recognising Israel's crimes against humanity. Why is the suffering of Palestinian mothers not worth the same as the suffering of Israeli mothers? We cannot accept the collective punishment of a people. How many thousands of innocent people will have to die in the name of the right to defence? The siege of Gaza, the occupation, the cutting off of water, medicines, food, humanitarian aid, forced displacement are clear violations of international law. Israel has been barring essential goods from Gaza for 11 days. We must demand the immediate release of all Israeli hostages, but also an immediate ceasefire and an end to the indiscriminate bombing of the people of Gaza.

Mr President, Afghanistan has a disastrous legacy of decades of international intervention and illegal occupations that have greatly deteriorated living conditions in the country. At the culmination of this legacy, the Taliban's seizure of power has exponentially increased the level of human rights violations, with a humanitarian crisis disproportionately affecting women and girls in the face of violence. apartheid Kind of. These violations add to the widespread persecution of former government officials and members of the security forces. Following the commitments made publicly, there is an urgent need for a general amnesty for these former politicians and for mechanisms to be put in place to establish the responsibilities of these acts under the command of the United Nations. We also need to facilitate visas to remove those who are suffering the most, in particular women and girls. We therefore reiterate our solidarity and commitment to the people of Afghanistan.

Madam President, Commissioner, there can be no doubt about the exit position from the Energy Treaty. We know that the Council prefers stagnation and, therefore, the position of the European Commission must be strong, it cannot be short-lived and, above all, very, very slow. We do not live in times that allow us to hesitate even in the urgency of the fight against climate change. Denunciation of the Energy Charter Treaty is an imperative. This treaty is not just a step back on the path we have to follow to protect the future of the planet and the people, it is even a brutal setback. This treaty is in practice one of the biggest obstacles to the climate transition; It is the continuation of the protection of fossil fuels, rather than ending them. Almost a year after the European Parliament approved the withdrawal from this damaging Treaty, nothing has yet happened and we must therefore act. It is a pity that the Council is not even here to be able to discuss it. So we know that they are willing to continue to protect the biggest polluters on this planet.

Mr President, Commissioner, the problem of shortages of medicines will only cease to be a problem when access to healthcare is put at the forefront of pharmaceutical companies' business, interests and profits. Quick patches in European legislation are not enough. We already know what happens to these: Sooner or later they end up falling and exposing the wounds of the system. What we need is a change of approach: we need public and universal health systems, we need public control over the production of medicines, not only to prevent shortages, but also to ensure that everyone who needs them has access to medicines, regardless of their income or whether or not they have rare diseases. And all this is all the more urgent at a time of economic crisis, when people have to choose between paying for the house, eating or buying medicines. When we face a drug shortage problem in this region of the world, in the richest region in the world, it is because clearly the business has been put ahead of public health.

Mr President, the horrific death of Mahsa Amini has brought about the greatest show of unity of the Iranian people against the Islamic Republic in its 44-year history and has acted as a magnifying glass for the blatant human rights violations committed by a regime that massacres its people to maintain power and repress and silence dissent. The regime's response was brutal. To date, more than 500 innocent Iranians, including 73 children, have been killed with impunity. They executed people after mock trials, arrested and imprisoned more than 20,000 people, including students, activists, artists, journalists and diplomats. There are already reports of arbitrary detentions, even before the demonstrations on the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini. At Mahsa's funeral, his grandfather wrote in the tomb: "Mahsa, your name will be a symbol". And it is, in fact, a symbol. A symbol of resistance, of freedom, of the fight against oppression. That is why, here in the European Union, we have an obligation to be more consistent and more combative in defending this precious symbol. Woman, life, freedom.

Mr President, when COVID-19 came, no one was prepared. This unpreparedness had several causes, but was not immune to successive public spending cuts and austerity policies. The labour market shock was dramatic, especially for precarious workers, women, young people and migrants. This shock is not immune to years of unprotected labor policies. The impact on healthcare workers and frontline workers was huge and that impact is not immune to insufficiency, precariousness and low wages. We perceive the structural absence of the right to care and this absence is not immune to the lack of recognition and rights of informal caregivers. The impact on homes and dwellings has been devastating and this impact is not immune to the precarious working and protection conditions of the elderly. And finally, in this report, there is a deafening silence about the intellectual property of vaccines or the lifting of patents. It is not serious that the recommendations on lessons learned from COVID-19 have absolutely nothing to say about this.

Madam President, the Industrial Emissions Act is one of the few that adopts an integrated approach to environmental protection as a whole, preventing pollution at source through stricter emission control, more monitoring and compensation, access to information and plans to transform industrial installations. Negotiations were difficult, especially on the inclusion of livestock farming. The original proposal covers a very small part of the livestock, pig and poultry production sectors, but, unsurprisingly, it has mobilised an aggressive campaign by the industrial agriculture lobby. The proposal we are going to vote on is therefore weaker than it should be. Nevertheless, we have an obligation to approve it. Revision of permits, increased penalties, stricter pollution of water and waste incinerators, inclusion of exploration and production of fossil fuels, decarbonisation, avoiding biodiversity loss and preventing accidents at work, protection of small farmers, are some of the reasons. We therefore hope that agribusiness and the right will not destroy this proposal in tomorrow's vote.

Mr President, Commissioner, Lebanon is experiencing a deep economic and social crisis and a political situation that is still blocked. We remember well the protests of 2019, when the population, and in particular young people, took to the streets worried about the absence of a future. Degraded public services, lack of social protection, impunity, corruption. The explosion of the port of Beirut has only aggravated the already difficult living conditions by itself and, once again, no responsibility has been ascertained and the culture of impunity and corruption survives. But it also survives extreme conditionality, the financial support that is given by the IMF does not allow the people to breathe. But Lebanon is also the country that proportionally receives the most refugees, and the one that received the most. And the refugees who came from Syria joined the already many thousands of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. In times of hatred, we cannot allow support to be lacking for those who have the least and the European Union also plays a key role here.

Madam President, corruption undermines democracies and European legislation is not only insufficient. It's completely out of date. This proposal, which has now been tabled, if it does not go further, risks still being a handful of nothing. It is crucial to develop legislation covering the public and private sectors, to frame corruption offences, to better prevent corruption and to improve the enforcement of penalties. We need proposals that criminalise not only bribery, but also proposals that can criminalise misappropriation, influence peddling, abuse of office, obstruction of justice and illicit enrichment. On influence-trafficking, we would have a lot to say about the recent cases in the European institutions, but the Commission has chosen to ignore those very cases and thus further undermine citizens' trust. There is another gap. We must not forget the enormous work of journalists and whistleblowers, the work they have done in denouncing corruption and organised crime. These journalists risk their freedom and their lives to warn us. Therefore, legal instruments that can protect them are also needed.

Mr President, women and girls in Afghanistan are still denied the right to education. Matiullah Wesa, a prominent advocate for women’s education and founder of , was arbitrarily detained, as have so many others before, including women’s rights activists and protesters. We strongly condemn the devastating backlash against women's rights and the broader human rights situation in Afghanistan, and we are extremely concerned about the humanitarian crisis there, which is hitting women, girls and women-led families the hardest. But let us not deceive ourselves. In Afghanistan there is a legacy, a disastrous legacy of decades of international intervention, of illegal occupations, such as that of NATO. And we should also think about it. That is why the European Union should increase its contribution to humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and facilitate the safe resettlement of Afghans at risk, including by increasing the granting of humanitarian visas, giving priority to women and girls. It is also with great concern that we have heard statements by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed that the UN is preparing a roadmap for the official recognition of the Taliban. But, colleagues, let us not forget the disastrous legacy of what were the decades of international intervention, of illegal occupations. Let us not erase what was the illegal occupation of NATO.

Mr President, since November, thousands of girls have suffered chemical attacks in schools throughout the Islamic Republic of Iran. Breathing problems, headaches, nausea, dizziness and temporary limb paralysis have been reported. Hundreds of students and staff were hospitalized and tragically Fatemeh Rezaei, just 11 years old, died. These attacks are believed to come from religious groups that oppose education for girls and it is impossible to dissociate them from the protests led by women and girls since the death of Mahsa Amini. The consequence is having fathers and mothers keep their daughters at home to protect them. We condemn these attacks on the students and call on the Iranian authorities to conduct a prompt, transparent and impartial investigation into the poisonings. We need an independent UN fact-finding mission. We also need emergency visas for those who are fighting for freedom and life. We cannot abandon the brave girls and girls of Iran. Nothing can stop women in Iran from being free.

Mr President, Commissioner, the truth is that in the proposal presented by the Commission there is no change, as I said, to the price-fixing system. The marginalist system remains. And so something happened, because in July last year, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, came here to this House, to this Parliament, to say that the marginalist market was not a market adapted to combat rising energy prices and therefore had to be changed. Between July and now, after all, they changed their minds. What made you change your mind? Continuing to secure corporate profits?

Mr President, Commissioner, the energy crisis we are experiencing has left millions of households and small businesses in a very difficult situation, practically on their knees, unable to pay their energy bills. And while this is happening, energy companies have had the jackpot, with absolutely exceptional profits. The Commission has put forward a number of measures, but all of them short-term and none structural, which do not touch on the substance. So my question is this: In view of the proposal they have now put forward, which does not interfere with the pricing system and remains marginal, what is the measure or what are the measures they expect to adopt to protect households and small businesses in the coming winter, instead of continuing to give the jackpot to energy companies?

Madam President, I would like to begin by thanking the rapporteur for his serious and committed work, so that tomorrow we have here a proposal that really wants to improve the lives of so many people. Many families across Europe are unable to heat their homes, either because of rising energy prices or because of poor building quality. This proposal to improve the energy performance of buildings is therefore a fundamental piece for climate justice, for social justice. To approve this commitment is to ensure the correction of a serious social problem, since vulnerable people living in worst-performing buildings, with no possibility of improving the situation, will have support. This proposal sets mandatory targets for the improvement of the energy performance of existing and new buildings, defines a financial support framework for this, includes new provisions for the adaptation of buildings to new mobility models, defines certification procedures and declares national plans to ensure that the objectives are met. Tomorrow, this House will decide whether it really wants to make a difference in the lives of millions of people or continue to put the real estate business ahead of so many lives. But let me say even more, Madam President. It is with great surprise that I see, in this House, Members of the ID and the ECR, who voted against this compromise in the Commission and in this House, coming to criticise and say things like the ones we heard here earlier when, in fact, tomorrow, they are going to table amendments in plenary that correspond to the text that has already been adopted, exactly in those terms, in the committee responsible. That is why so much propaganda, so much populism, is incomprehensible without really wanting to change people's lives.

Mr President, the violent attack by the far right on democratic institutions in Brasilia on 8 January is part of a more global phenomenon. A year ago it was the Capitol and now it was Brasilia. Trump and Bolsonaro go hand in hand in the same fight for the destruction of democracy. We therefore strongly support efforts to ensure a prompt, impartial, serious and effective investigation in order to identify, prosecute and hold accountable all those involved, including instigators, organizers and funders, as well as the omissions of state institutions that have not acted to prevent these attacks. We also support and are deeply supportive of President Lula da Silva, democratically elected, and his government. And we will be attentive, we know perfectly well that the coup attempt did not end here. We are deeply in solidarity with the Brazilian people and all those who for years have been subjected to violence, discrimination, assassinations and attempts at destabilisation. On this side of the sea, we are ready to help root out the roots of Bolsonarism and continue to sow rosemary.

Mr President, we know that the Taliban regime systematically violates the rights of women and girls. We know there's a gender. We know that 850,000 girls have been prevented from attending secondary school for more than a year. We know and condemn all this. We demand the full accountability of the Taliban regime and welcome the resumption of the International Criminal Court investigation into war crimes against humanity and war crimes in Afghanistan. But we need to go much further. We need the increasing attacks against minority groups, such as the Hazaras, to be called by name, genocide, as the special rapporteur has stated. We need European Union countries to grant humanitarian visas to Afghans seeking protection here, giving priority to women and girls. We need Member States to support the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive for Afghans. The so-called double standards in the European Union are unsustainable. We need to help refugee host countries with humanitarian, financial and technical assistance. We need legalised routes and safe travel for Afghan refugees and we need, above all and also, to take responsibility. Twenty years after the illegal intervention of the United States and NATO, the conflict has caused great suffering and serious damage to the economic and social development of Afghanistan. We therefore also need to correct the legacy of human rights abuses of the last 20 years.

Madam President, I should also like to begin by thanking the rapporteur for the work he has done. The importance of cybersecurity in an increasingly interconnected world and where our relationships are increasingly dependent on the digital world is indisputable. Cybersecurity is a key guarantee and having the capacity for defence and joint response is an urgency. Cyberattacks have become part of our daily lives, be they personal, but above all in relation to entities and organisations on which our security and guarantees depend. And it also puts at risk our well-being, our democracy, our data and our privacy. The measures presented are important and are steps that are taken in the right direction. However, we would have liked to see more concrete proposals in some areas, notably to improve the protection, training and knowledge of both consumers and workers in this digital world. We would also like to have seen greater concern about the constraints faced by entities, especially those in rural or more remote regions. And finally, we would have liked to see more protection for personal data and privacy. In any case, whatever the short or broadest steps that are taken in this proposal are welcome, because we really need to be able to respond together.

Mr President, Haiti is experiencing a catastrophic social, political and human rights situation, which has further deteriorated in recent years. The alarming increase in violence has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of families in urban and peri-urban areas of the capital. Due to gang violence, thousands of people have had to flee their homes and are being directly affected in their freedoms and access to basic services. From January to the end of June this year, there have been 934 murders, 684 people have been injured and there have been 680 kidnappings across the capital. Several cases of repeated collective rapes have been committed against women and girls, confirming the systematic use of gender-based violence. Added to this is the economic crisis and rampant inflation, as well as a policy of mass deportation of Haitian migrants and refugees by the United States or arbitrary and discriminatory detentions. We cannot continue to fail the people in Haiti. We must be actively supportive and reject all forms of interference and neocolonialism. We need diplomatic solutions and we need to ensure that support and social assistance reach those in need and with transparency. We also need to support all those who resist in the country, including trade unions, youth and human rights organisations, religious organisations, and to support the restoration of the power and legitimacy of public institutions.

Mr President, due to the climate crisis, summer 2022, like the most recent, has been characterised by increasingly frequent and extreme weather events, with record heat, droughts, forest fires, intense storms and floods. Europe has suffered its worst drought in at least 500 years and reached a record 660 000 hectares destroyed by forest fires, my country being one of the most tragically affected. The policy options of recent years do not respond to the climate emergency and it is not only with more infrastructure or means that we will solve the environmental, social and health problems we face. Almost everything remains to be done. I will therefore focus on the issue of water. It is time to treat water as a common good, essential to life, and not as a business. Instead of shifting water to intensive production, we need to remove obsolete barriers and reverse soil sealing. We need water storage capacity in small, decentralized weirs, greater infiltration fluidity and faster reuse. We need to change our agricultural production model, eliminating monocultures and intensive and super-intensive production, which are causes of soil desertification and depopulation leading to forest disorder. In short, we need serious political will to combat climate change, not semantic laments that are repeated every year.

Madam President, the use of judicial measures for repressive purposes in Nicaragua remains very worrying. Since 2018, hundreds of NGOs have been banned and 350 have been cancelled this year alone. The United Nations considers the new law in Nicaragua to be contrary to rights obligations, restricting the freedom of expression and association of any organization that attempts to criticize the government. There are reports of arrests, intimidations and prosecutions of political opponents, human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists, as well as cases of prisoners subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment. There are criminal cases that do not respect the right to a fair trial. The instrumentalization of justice by political power is an unacceptable reality. Courts cannot become the judicial arm of repression. They are the expression of a corrupt judicial system, the absence of justice and the separation of powers. We must show solidarity for this with the people of Nicaragua, in the face of the arbitrariness and authoritarianism of the government.

Madam President, we women have never been granted our rights without having to claim them and fight hard for them. In 2022 we still have to fight for the recognition of our fundamental rights and around the world we continue to be confronted by those who insist on not wanting to see our human rights, on not seeing us as worthy of fundamental rights, equally unwavering, and by those who systematically insist on attacking our rights and, in particular, sexual and reproductive rights. We cannot tolerate this, either in the United States or in the European Union, or anywhere in the world. Our bodies, our rights, our choice. We therefore call for safeguarding the right to legal and safe abortion in the United States or anywhere in the world, for the decriminalization of abortion, for ensuring access to safe and free sexual and reproductive health services for all women and girls, in accordance with the internationally protected human rights of women. We will continue to fight, yes, until it is necessary. Yes, we will always stand in solidarity.