Debate contributions by Catarina MARTINS

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, the right wants to convince us that the European Union has the power to destroy rights, but not to create. It may require liberalisation of labour law, but not labour rights. It may require privatization of public services, but not the right to health or housing. It's not about competence, it's about choice - and your side is clear. The left, for its part, has been fighting for the European social model to be something more than a propaganda article. Protecting and re-founding the post-war social contract (with robust public services, with dignity for all people throughout life and strong labour rights, including, yes, minimum wage, protection of those working for platforms or the right to disconnect) is the minimum of the minimum. Demanding an effective social pillar and for these times is a choice about the Europe we want. A Europe of rights or a Europe of the race to the bottom. This choice will decide not only the future of Europe, but the future of democracy.

Madam President, we are talking about a case of life or death. We're talking about a man who was kidnapped by the Wagner Group a year and a half ago, who was tortured. It was handed over by the Wagner Group to the Central African Republic and barbarism continued. He was tried in a trial without guarantees of justice and sentenced to an absolutely inhuman sentence of ten years of forced labour. We are talking about Joseph Figueira Martin, an anthropologist, humanitarian worker, with dual nationality: Portuguese and Belgian. But if we were to talk about any citizen, anywhere in the world, this whole story would be unacceptable - and this has to stop. Of course we are in the European Parliament and we have an increased responsibility to defend the citizens of the European Union. And here we are, and it is also for this fellow-countryman of mine - fellow-citizen - that I speak. The least the European Parliament can do is demand his immediate release. We did it in July; the situation has worsened. And the problem is that, if the European Parliament can continue to table resolutions calling for release, we do not know how much longer this man can wait, because his health is deteriorating at every moment. That is why this joint position and this determination of the European Parliament to ensure that Joseph Figueira Martin is released is very important. If all the other reasons for the abuse of rights were sufficient, let us now also look at the humanitarian reason for his poor health.

Mr President, Commissioner, the right tries to justify the retreats in the Green Pact with two arguments which are two lies: competitiveness and costs for families. On competitiveness, we understand, even China already has an agenda for the energy transition and the European retreat will only have two consequences: technological backwardness and jeopardising European companies that see their efforts in vain. Going back into the environment is a mistake. Moreover, there is no competition with the planet, there is only one planet and our responsibility is to have an economic model that allows the life of the human species on Earth. As for costs for households, the energy transition, if done well, only lowers costs and thus frees up wages. Good free and efficient public transport protects the environment and protects the wallet. Decentralized renewable energy production lowers the bill for light, allows more efficient and comfortable homes. If we play less with green taxes, which are anything but green and only serve to ease the conscience of the big polluters, and if we invest seriously in the just transition, those who live off their work only have to earn, even in better jobs and better wages. Meanwhile, the irresponsible far-right deniers, the retreat of the right and the lack of courage of socialists and greens, keep us in this situation of going to vote on emissions reduction targets that are a farce. It will not be for us that the European Union is without reduction targets, but we will not fail to denounce what we have here: with so many flexibility mechanisms, there is no guarantee of reduction here. We will not lower our arms! There is no planet B!

Madam President, Commissioner, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Every year in Europe, half a million women receive this diagnosis and 125,000 die. Tragically, the risk has increased even in young women, but the evolution of health brings hope to all women. This hope has three conditions: timely diagnosis, appropriate treatment and follow-up. For this, we need robust, universal and timely health services, not health cuts. We need health literacy, more and better education, and fewer prejudices and taboos. Fighting the stigma and celebrating the survivors also saves us all. And we need living conditions. Yes, women postpone appointments and diagnostic tests too often, because work has too many hours, outside and inside the home, because they give priority to caring for others – children, parents, companions, family – and when they need care too often they are left alone. October is Breast Cancer Visibility Month. Every month is to fight for women's health and lives. A final call: do the screening.

Madam President, Commissioner, in August 2024, the world reached two degrees centigrade for the first time. Europe is the fastest warming continent. In my country, in Portugal, summer fires never let us forget that climate change is our present. Ten years ago, the Paris Agreement sealed the global promise of every effort being made not to exceed one and a half degrees. It didn't happen. Oil has always spoken louder. We are going to the 30th COP, and there will be a lot of people wondering if we can still expect anything. In the face of Trump's denialism, the inaction of the European Commission and governments, Parliament's resolution does not quite give up on effective changes to a strategy to end the fossil. But there is a tragic setback: militarization as an exception and that jeopardizes all objectives. Signs of global hope come to us today from environmental movements. At COP30, in Brazil, indigenous peoples make themselves heard and, in the parliamentary commitments made, there is a dedicated section that recognises their rights, their indispensable role. We now propose one more step. If we want the end of the fossil, this is also a time of opposition to new oil exploration projects in the Amazon. I invite Members to vote on this compromise coming from the Peoples' Summit, and I ask the Commissioner whether he will have time to meet with the Peoples' Summit and get to know its demands, or whether all his time will be for the oil lobby. One thing I know: the social movement has driven the environmental agenda to this day, and COP30 must be the moment for more social movement.

Mr President, Commissioner, not being able to pay for the house, living in an overcrowded house and postponing life projects puts mental health at risk. Working underpaid, with long hours and precarious contracts, puts mental health at risk. When education is a competition, rather than a learning, it puts mental health at risk. On top of all this, having homework and care tasks, without the support of quality public services, and still dealing with everyday macho violence, yes, puts mental health in question. Poverty puts mental health at risk. The European Commission says it is concerned about all this, but it promotes property speculation, overexploitation of labour and disinvestment in the welfare state and public services. I do not forget that the European Commission in 2016 opposed raising the minimum wage in my country; and I don't forget the struggle it was to do it anyway. But I also know that you are now comforting the Portuguese Government's plans to destroy the few remaining labour rights in my country. Your policy puts at risk mental health and the mismatch between what you proclaim and what you do puts democracy at risk.

Mr President, Commissioner, when the Second World Summit for Social Development meets next month, 30 years will have passed since the Copenhagen compromise, without us being able to live up to what was required. In a world of growing inequalities and growing political forces betting everything on putting workers against workers, and following Donald Trump’s decision to end USAID, which is estimated to kill more than 14 million people in the world – especially children – by 2030 for lack of vaccines and food, holding this summit in Qatar is tragic cynicism. That at least this Parliament is able to fight for strong commitments; poverty eradication, decent employment, social cohesion are goals that can be achieved – there is political will. This is the time for the European Union to lead by example. The phrase that is repeated so many times and practiced so little. Commitment to development is not a favor, it is an obligation and must be an instrument of peace. Solidarity is not a weakness, it is a strength.

I am sure that the European Union has not done what it should have done. The European Union did not do what it should to defend the humanitarian flotilla, because I do not forget that the Mediterranean is full of Frontex boats that could have accompanied the flotilla boats, broken the siege and brought humanitarian aid to those in need. Did the European Union not do what it needed to do to defend the flotilla, because it would accept from some country, as it accepted from Israel, a criminal detention in international waters and the inhuman treatment given to those detainees, which not even the support of lawyers, many of them, were able to have? And I know that the European Union has not done what it should do because the Member States (“...”)

Madam President, tested in a real scenario, it is the hallmark of Israeli weaponry. A business that grows like never before. Europe is the main buyer, but there are also Arab countries to buy. Palestinians are dead. Gaza is the testing ground of the death industry. A peace plan tailored to this business is not a peace plan. In Trump's and Netanyahu's plan, the Palestinians are not even heard. War criminal Tony Blair is the foreman of service and Israel maintains not only all power but all impunity. It is a war plan and it is the end of international and humanitarian law. Europe pretends to condemn, but continues to arm genocide. They have flown F-35s to Israel with the permission of the Portuguese government. The minimum required of the European Union is less cynicism and more effective sanctions. Follow the courageous example of the flotillas and send their fleets to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, break the siege, stop the genocide, commit to the accountability of war criminals. Then we can have a peace plan with some credibility.

Mr President, Commissioner, in 2025, Portugal was the Member State with the most burnt area in the whole of the European Union. Hundreds of firefighters risked their lives, and populations were left alone fighting the fire to save their villages. The Portuguese government failed, devalued, did not prepare, called for international help too late, was not able to provide a coordinated response. He left the populations, the firefighters, GNR, mayors, to their fate. And we are grateful for European solidarity, but I think we should also discuss whether we cannot do better. In fact, the European Union did not live up to what was expected either: the European Civil Protection Mechanism took five days to send the air assets, after being activated. Five long days. While continuing to export arms to Israel and promising Trump more business for the military industrial complex, Member States and European institutions are failing at the most basic to ensure the safety of their population – civil protection – as if the safety of European citizens were secondary. The villages surrounded by fire, desperate for help, are the tragic result of contempt for the populations and should be the first reason to shiver the path and give priority to cohesion and climate transition.

Madam President, Mrs Kallas, it is genocide, not conflict – it is genocide. Twenty-eight children die every day in the Gaza Strip, at the hands of Israel and at the hands of all those who are complicit. Do not come here to mourn the millions of humanitarian aid that are rotting because Israel has decided to starve to death in Gaza. In fact, what I needed to be doing was supporting those who are trying to get humanitarian aid to Gaza. I didn't hear a word from you about the Global Flotilla. Tonight, one of the Portuguese-flagged boats travelling Greta Thunberg, Ada Colau, Mariana Mortágua and many other European citizens was hit by a drone. It's happened before. We know that's how Israel works. And what do they say? Roberta Metsola, Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa, where is your condemnation of this attack? Where is your guarantee of protection for the Freedom Flotilla? Where is the guarantee of protection for those who are doing what we should all be doing, which is bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza? Your silence is complicit. Israel is killing with European weapons and means. The accomplices of genocide are also genocidal.

Mr President, menstrual pain has historically been made invisible. The devaluation of menstrual pain and endometriosis is yet another expression of the inequality imposed by patriarchal society, which continues to devalue women's health, and this prejudice must be combated. When cells in the endometrial tissue, the tissue that lines the uterus, grow abnormally and elsewhere, menstruation is painful – in some cases disabling pain. Endometriosis is a chronic and debilitating disease with severe impacts on quality of life, including reproductive freedom, and only prejudice explains why it continues to be ignored. In Portugal, we passed a law to protect women in this situation, guaranteeing three days of justified and paid absences per month to those suffering from endometriosis and adenomyosis. The law is recent and the news is worrying. Not only are there employers who refuse to comply with the law, there are doctors who refuse to pass the declaration and even schools who are also refusing the declarations to justify absences of students suffering from the disease. A great cruelty, based on pure prejudice. Unfortunately, this prejudice still extends throughout Europe. It is estimated that there will be around 14 million women with endometriosis in the European Union, but funding for their study is lacking. Little is known about the disease and how to deal with it. The diagnosis can take up to seven years and, even after it has been made, therapies are lacking. In fact, there is no recognition of the problem. Prejudice, then. Patriarchal prejudice is present in everything, including health. And if today we begin to talk about this inequality, it is thanks to feminist activism, which imposed on the political agenda what was condemned to a wall of silence. But if we talk today, we also have to act. There is a lack of research on women's health and their bodies. Men's bodies and health conditions can no longer be the measure of medical research and clinical practice. Lack of recognition and appreciation of women's symptoms and health conditions. There is a lack of concrete targets for training health professionals and a lack of response in public health systems. There is a lack of sexual and health education in schools, including menstrual education. All women must be given the right to their bodies and the health care they need, including abortion. Commissioner, the Commission's statement, recognising the need to agree on persistent gender inequality, also in health, is fundamental. Addressing the issue of endometriosis is an important step and I am glad that we are doing so today, even at the end of the plenary session and with so few people in Strasbourg. But I'm glad we talked. But the other essential step will be a comprehensive strategy for women's health, including the right to sexual and reproductive health throughout the European Union. And that's what we're going to keep working for.

Mr President, Commissioner, Joseph Figueira Martin is a member of an NGO, FHI 360, and worked in the Central African Republic when, more than a year ago, he was arrested by the Wagner Group and then handed over to the authorities. More than a year later, despite many allegations by the Central African Republic government, no charges were brought against Joseph Figueira Martin. There has been no trial, there is not even a scheduled date, and there are complaints of torture that have to be investigated. But there is above all an undeniable demand. The law of the Central African Republic itself is being violated, because if there is evidence against José Figueira Martin, then there is prosecution and trial; If there is no evidence and they have not appeared for more than a year, Joseph Figueira Martin has to be released and it is already late. I know that it is not the job of this Parliament to investigate the guilt or innocence of any citizen of the European Union, and I do not want to do so. But it is the job of this Parliament and the other European institutions to demand respect for the basic rights of all citizens anywhere in the world.

Mr President, Commissioner, in order to ensure preparedness in the event of a disaster, you have asked the population to have a kit able to meet basic needs for 72 hours and many people, all over Europe, bought lanterns and batteries, water, cans and, of course, medicines. But the Commission seems to have difficulty in following its own advice. Today's strategy, both on the creation of reserves for a possible breakdown in supply chains and on the health strategy in case of pandemics or others, is full of great intentions, but has no budget. That is, the European Union will not spend a penny on any kit of readiness. And where does the money go anyway? For armaments, of course, because there are commitments of many millions. For everything else, less and less. Is protecting supply chains and ensuring health security critical? Yes, yes. Do they invest? No, no. Indeed, and even without assuming it, the Commission is already doing what the Secretary-General of NATO requested. Take to health to spend on weapons. It is a huge irresponsibility, which we will definitely oppose.

Madam President, Commissioner, do you believe that the Earth is flat or does science still have a place? The Climate Law established a scientific body to inform about decisions and the reduction target. Scientists have said one fundamental thing: Reducing emissions in one place to increasing emissions in the other does not solve it. Emissions trading, it is proven, does not work. Sounds pretty obvious. The planet is only one. The goals really have to be met. And what does the Commission do? Ignore the science. It presents the targets after the deadline and in minimum ambition and proposes flexibilization mechanisms that scientists have expressly warned that they do not serve. After all, goals are not to be met. After the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, the Commission decides to show that it is also unreliable. For the Commission, everything is negotiated on the market, including the climate. Problem: The planet will not negotiate temperature or sea level with anyone. We will lose everyone, starting with the poorest, who face unprotected heatwaves and storms. But the Commission does not even see them.

Mr President, Commissioner, the lack of responses of dignified care, respectful of autonomy in the various stages of life, frightens Europe and there are objective reasons for this. There is abandonment of people, abandonment of families, abandonment of women, of families that carry a burden that is not theirs and, often, the alternative to this abandonment is the institutionalization of people, that is, we condemn those who need care to live closed in an institution. The struggle that people with disabilities have fought for the right to independent living is a struggle for all people, for rights, for all people at all stages of their lives. And coming here repeating good intentions is not the answer. If the Commission wants to fight institutionalisation, I have a shocking suggestion: Stop funding it, stop funding it. Ensure that all EU funding for disability goes to independent living programmes and national care services and not to people's warehouses. The right to independent living, to dignified treatment, is not an absurd requirement. Tailored, supported homes, personal assistance, community support, accessibility, decent care, inclusive urbanism are within the reach of the European Union. There is political will.

Mr President, Mrs Kallas, I only have one minute and I think that in one minute it is still possible to evaluate the association agreement with Israel and decide to terminate it. Come with me. The second article of the agreement reads: ‘Relations between the parties shall be based on respect for human rights’. And what is Israel doing? It indiscriminately massacres civilians and is in breach of international humanitarian law. It also denies humanitarian aid. Killing children by the thousands, destroying hospitals, destroying homes and condemning them to starvation are a violation of human rights. Genocide is a violation of human rights. Madam Vice-President of the Commission, there you have the grounds for suspending the Agreement in less than a minute. I don't think anyone will be able to explain at any time how this Agreement remains active. European leaders are already complicit in the genocide and will also have to answer for its crimes.

Madam President, Commissioner, there are two forms of irresponsibility: climate deniers – who are represented here by the far right – but also good intentions, without realisation, which the right has come here today to welcome. The Oceans Pact suffers from this irresponsibility for inconsistency. When it comes to changing something, in what is most urgent, there are no concrete and binding targets, not even enough investment. Just good intentions. The ocean is our last climate protection barrier and the risk is tremendous. Transforming fisheries, supporting fishers, ending industrial trawling and halting the fossil and plastic plague in the oceans must be binding, along with increasing protected areas and banning deep-sea mining. On the way to COP30, a European Pact that evades concrete targets is the wrong signal. Commissioner, I hope we can still correct it.

Madam President, Commissioner, this debate is a parade of horrors. A far-right group arrives and advocates cutting funding to universities that position themselves against the genocide in Palestine. Soon after, another of the far-right groups is advocating cuts in scientific research on women. As if that were not enough, the third far-right group in this Parliament is coming and is proposing to adopt the fascist concept of science: You only find out what makes them right. The issue of academic freedom is not just a problem in the United States, where Donald Trump's administration is persecuting universities and scientists. The interference and threat against universities, the complete disregard for autonomy, the lack of knowledge – where racism, misogyny and homophobia remain, elevated to the criteria of science, which can or cannot be produced – are also already present in Hungary. It is already lurking in so many European countries. Isn't that what we heard here today? The Choose Europe for Science initiative aims to attract scientists from other parts of the world to do science in Europe. And it is good that Europe wants to do so, that it wants to open up to the world and that it realises that science is fundamental. But let's look at what's going on: Insufficient science budget, xenophobia at the heart of immigration policy and, moreover, with the growing coverage that popular and liberals give to the far right all over Europe, who will welcome American, European researchers, wherever they may be, when persecution here also becomes the rule?

Mr President, Commissioner, we cannot continue to abandon patients with rare diseases. Rare diseases affect 36 million citizens of the European Union, 8% of the population. We are talking about a spectrum of about 7,000 diseases, most of them chronic, disabling or even deadly. 95% have no specific treatment and the diagnosis is often late (on average, it takes five years). And after all the suffering until a diagnosis is made, the likelihood of therapy being unaffordable for the sick person and their family is very high. As if it were not enough to suffer from a rare disease, you still need to be lucky about the country where you live or are born. Access to timely diagnoses, medication and specific treatments depends on a geographic lottery. Let's see, screening tests on newborns, which are central to timely detection and treatment, range from testing for only two pathologies, as in Romania, or 49, as in Italy. Access to orphan medicines and innovative treatments depends on how quickly each Member State approves medicines at national level, after EMA authorisation, but also on States’ investment in specialised research and care and, of course, on the willingness and interest of the pharmaceutical industry to market these products. And the pharmaceutical industry only gives us proof that it's unreliable. It is time for a European Action Plan on Rare Diseases, a plan that is multidisciplinary and comprehensive, that strengthens public capacity and promotes knowledge sharing, innovation, innovative diagnostic techniques and also access to innovative medicines and treatments for all rare disease carriers without exception. And it is time to create a European fund to finance access to treatment and care, regardless of where patients are born and live, and to impose rules on the pharmaceutical industry.

Mr President, poverty and unemployment are called adjustment, precariousness is called flexibility and deregulation is called simplification. More than a decade ago, austerity arrived via the international financial crisis. Now, it's for weapons blackmail. When people and their rights need to be protected, the European institutions explain that the Treaties do not allow it. When it comes to saving banks or buying weapons, they ignore those same treaties. It is no coincidence that inflation and the cost of living are the greatest concern of the peoples of Europe, together with housing and health. The institutions know the barometer, but choose to ignore it. The European Commission, which says here today that Social Europe is so important and that it was born out of the agreement that included socialists and democrats, greens, liberals, people and part of the far right, is the Commission that abandons both the Social Pillar and the Green Deal. The left does not abandon. Security is not about filling the world with weapons. True security lies in the fight against inequality. It's in salary, home, education, health and the battle against the climate crisis.

Madam President, Commissioner, I do not see your video on the kit Survival for 72 hours is just an unfortunate joke. It is part of a strategy to impose on public opinion the inevitability of war. Twenty years ago, the war industry invented the lie of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, now it's the supposed lack of weapons in Europe. The European Union has the second largest defence spending and is the second largest arms exporter in the world. It is only supplanted by the United States. It lacks autonomy, yes, but not weapons. The problem is that even weapons depend on Putin's gas and Musk's satellites. Readiness requires energy transition. Thousands of Europeans have died in climate disasters and the Commission proposes to backtrack on climate targets. It requires public, digital and communications strategy. We are trapped between the apps American, Chinese and Russian, and medicines. The European Union depends on up to 80% of active substances produced in China. We cannot waste on the weapons that we do not need the investment in health that we lack. Readiness is not having medicines for three days, it is having medicines every day.

Madam President, Commissioner, medicine shortages are a growing problem in the European Union, there are shortages even in cancer medicines, and to have access or not is a geographical lottery. And the definition of critical medicines itself overlooks some rare diseases or women's reproductive health. Action is therefore urgently needed. But does the Commission's proposal respond to the fundamentals? The drug chain is held hostage by large pharmaceutical companies and subject to the will of third countries. Most generic medicines produced in Europe rely on active substances produced in China and India. Ensuring the production and supply of medicines therefore requires transparency, new market rules, including on patents, and public investment. Health ministers from 11 Member States are now calling for this investment to be included in defence programmes. The request puts the finger on the wound. After all, for armaments there are 800 billion euros and for health there are only restrictions. And without sovereign capacity in medicines, such as digital or energy, there is no security in Europe.

Mr President, 'You are not alone' is the first certainty that we must leave to all people, especially the youngest, who are facing mental health problems. Worsening mental health conditions are a societal problem and require a global transformation. In 2003, the European Commission already stated: 1) that there is no solution without responding to social, economic and environmental determinants; 2) that a specific strategy is needed for children and young people, and while poverty and discrimination are the greatest risks, digital and social media are responsible for the deterioration of mental health indicators in the last decade; 3) that it is necessary to ensure access to health care. Meanwhile, poverty, precariousness and environmental risks have worsened, discrimination and hatred have grown, social media and digital have moved ahead without rules, education and health are under even more pressure. Commissioner, does it make sense to continue to say that mental health is a priority while making economic and social policy choices that only exacerbate the problem?

I understand that you do not like science, you do not like conspiracies. I must tell you the following: When children die of vaccine-preventable diseases because deniers deny vaccines, they are making the policy of death. When Bolsonaro, in Brazil, denied the oxygen needed to respond to COVID and denied vaccines, he was making the policy of death. The far right has hundreds of thousands of deaths at its feet during the COVID period and should be ashamed to speak out.