Speeches

Madam President, as in previous years, we are faced with a probable budgetary reduction, when what was required would be a significant reinforcement of the European Union's budget alongside the reinforcement of its redistributive function to support the promotion of effective convergence in economic and social progress between Member States, as well as support for the real economy of the Member States through grants, not loans, to respond to the serious economic and social situation that several Member States are facing. This situation is aggravated by the conditioning of the Member States' room for manoeuvre in promoting public investment, in financing public services and their social functions, through the application of macroeconomic and/or political conditionalities laid down by the European Union, which must be eliminated as a matter of urgency. We have put forward a number of proposals to support small and medium-sized enterprises, small and medium-sized agriculture, fisheries and transport, among others, which, if approved, will help to secure increased resources for economic, social and territorial cohesion, for the benefit of countries, workers and peoples.

Madam President, COVID-19 has hit the tourism sector dramatically, due to the strong restrictive measures that have been put in place. In countries such as Portugal, where excessive concentration and dependence on the tourism sector has been promoted in the economy, in turn dependent on a limited number of markets to the detriment of the productive sectors, the repercussions of these impacts spill over throughout the economy and society. At various times, we have called for a comprehensive response to guarantee specific support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in this sector and to protect their workers, their jobs and their incomes. For most of these companies and workers, the response was late and the support was, is, and is not expected to cease to be insufficient. However, the tourism sector has other viruses that need to be tackled: precariousness, deregulation and a lack of rationality in their socio-economic and territorial organisation. The answer that is required is for all seasons of the year: support and incentives that promote the recovery and sustainability of the sector, based on working with rights and valuing workers and their wages, and serving the objective of contributing to the development of Member States in the framework of their social and territorial cohesion strategies. This goes hand in hand with public investment in the mobility of populations, the diversification of economic activities, with a view to reducing the structural dependencies of each country.

Mr President, the defence and protection of biodiversity is a central issue in the preservation of nature and its ecological functions. It is in the developing countries that the areas with the greatest genetic diversity are located, and there, too, the greatest losses are recorded. The EU's responsibility to promote practices which, while not serving the interests of the people, have contributed and continue to contribute to this reality is limited in this report. The introduction of correct ethical principles in relations with third countries runs counter to the cynicism of the commodification of nature, projecting so-called ‘best practices’ and imposing strong conditionality on access to development aid, with a view to ensuring the dominance of peoples’ resources to feed the profits of capital. Genuine development aid, based on effective cooperation and solidarity, requires the establishment of relations based on respect for the sovereignty and independence of States and geared not to profit, but to satisfy the needs of peoples, with a view to reducing dependencies and consolidating capacities, particularly at the productive level.

Mr President, the impossibility of scrutinising the concluded contracts on which this debate focuses is only one part of the problem. It was the huge public resources that paid for the research, the production, the early purchase of vaccines. Multinationals have taken property rights and block the fastest advance of vaccination in the name of profit. To this end, they rely on the European Union's uncompromising opposition to the lifting of patents in order to defend their interests. They want to standardise the procurement process in a so-called public procurement that binds states in an unacceptable way to the options of the European Union, preventing them from diversifying beyond that procedure the acquisition of solutions that best serve their needs. Here's the glimpse of the healthcare market they want to promote. The current situation requires the diversification of vaccine procurement, the creation of vaccine production capacities in each country and the suspension of patents as a way to ensure the fastest and broadest vaccination. Vaccines are a public good that must be at the service of humanity.

Madam President, after a year, where are we? In the face of the pandemic, an EU obstinate in defending the interests of pharmaceutical multinationals, including by opposing the lifting of patents. A mobilisation of Community funds has only just begun, in a conditioned manner and subordinated to the priorities defined by the EU and not starting from the realities and problems that each country faces, nor aiming to overcome the deficit of countries such as Portugal. The restoration of the draconian constraints of the Stability Pact, the return to dictatorship of the deficit it has promoted, the degradation of public services, particularly in health. What is required is the definitive abrogation of this pact. A social summit which confirmed the intention to continue convergence in backsliding in important areas. The pretense, under the pretext of the green transition, the deindustrialization of some, the consequent unemployment and the increase in dependence. A CAP that maintains an unfair distribution and promotes the concentration of production. These, like others, are policies that do not serve the people, namely the Portuguese people.

Mr President, these reports highlight the lack of references to public health services. Public services that were instrumental in the response to COVID-19, despite the systemic public disinvestment policies imposed by neoliberal policies and economic and political constraints of the European Union on Member States. Not surprisingly, given the objectives surrounding the so-called European Health Union, the European health market, which does not aim to empower and strengthen public health services, but rather seeks to open the field to projects of liberalisation, privatisation and concentration of this sector. At the same time, it insists on a public procurement model that seeks to condition the capacity of states to diversify the purchase of medicines, the option that blocked the faster advance of vaccination and that tied states to the interests of pharmaceutical multinationals, preventing the purchase of vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization. Responding to emerging health situations cannot be a pretext for transferring competences from states to the supranational sphere. What is needed is the strengthening of public health services and their universal and free character, is the empowerment of States in public research, in the production of medicines and other medical products, eliminating dependencies from abroad. The strengthening of cooperation in the field of health should be promoted on the basis of respect for the sovereignty of states and their autonomy, valuing their national authorities and taking public and public interests as a reference.

Madam President, the European Union's macroeconomic legislative framework is an almost absolute constraint on any sovereign development project. A framework that covers virtually all spheres of state life. Through blackmail and the threat of sanctions, the European institutions seek to condition and avoid more than the budgetary policy of the Member States, they seek to tie development options to the interests of big capital and the major powers of the European Union. In Portugal, it is macroeconomic policies in comparison with the Constitution that prevent the necessary public investment, the promotion of productive capacity, the control of strategic sectors. In short, they impede the economic and social development of the country, while promoting the growth of inequalities, social injustices and increased exploitation. The way forward demands the liberation of this corset, first of all by repealing, and not by reforming, all the mechanisms that constrain and condition States in the definition and implementation of their sovereign development strategies.

Mr President, since the 1970s the European Union has defined environmental policy guidelines through environmental action programmes. These programmes have integrated positive considerations into key areas of environmental policy, such as biodiversity, climate or soil, but also trade policy or access to justice, among others. The social question must also be considered. Concrete action is needed on all these issues, and Parliament's position, which we are debating today, contributes to this. The positive elements that may result are confronted with the policies of the European Union of a neoliberal and mercantilist nature, which this proposal does not reject. Examples are the perverse and ineffective market approaches that enshrine the right to pollute, such as emissions trading. Many other examples could be recalled. A serious approach to environmental problems requires a society that is geared towards meeting human needs rather than profit.