Debate contributions by Catarina MARTINS

Madam President, every epoch has had its bubbles and financial frauds. Today, it is cryptocurrencies, a scam disguised as investment, that generates a mountain of pollution without producing a pin. Unsurprisingly and unscrupulously, Trump has just announced the creation of his own cryptocurrency, which will be governed by the rules he will create as President of the United States. As in any pyramid scheme, only creators, like Trump, will always come out full of money, but in this case, real money, euros, dollars. The unsuspecting and dazzled will lose everything. Commissioner, by allowing cryptocurrencies under the guise of regulation, the European institutions are normalising the scam, helping to deceive citizens, and by allowing banks to build crypto-asset wallets, they are creating a growing mechanism of contagion to the markets, ignoring even the warnings of the IMF. In the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, we already had a smell of this mechanism. Let us be clear: Regulating cryptocurrencies has to be banning cryptocurrencies, preventing banks from buying them, protecting people from scams, avoiding the next financial crisis.

Mr President, over the next 25 years, three out of four people will be affected by drought worldwide. It's a disaster and it's here. Europe is warming faster than the rest of the world and the prolonged drought has arrived decades ahead of schedule. For this reason, and despite the veto of the United States and Japan on an agreement for a global drought resilience regime, the European Union cannot give up on this objective and must act at all levels. I come from a country, Portugal, where super-intensive agriculture condemns much of the Alentejo and Algarve population, including small farmers, to a life without water. What they produce does not feed these populations or leave wealth in the country. Everything is exported, including profits. Only degraded soils remain. So I know that this is not the struggle of ecology against agriculture, it is the struggle of our lives, including food production, against the maelstrom of agribusiness multinationals. That is why, Commissioner, it will take courage to tackle some of the most powerful economic interests.

Madam President, while some in this debate are upset because plastic caps are now attached to bottles, there are parts of the planet that are literally submerged in plastic seas. If nothing is done, production will triple, when scientific studies are already showing how microplastics are infiltrating our brain tissues and even breast milk. It is true that international agreements are blocked and that, from Trump's United States, we can only expect the situation to worsen. Perhaps that is why they dream of space travel to Mars, but it is on Earth, where the 8 billion people who do not enter the space plans of Elon Musk live, that it is urgent to find the path of responsibility. Commissioner, the European Union must set itself demanding targets and must impose them both internally and in its international agreements, because now is the time for us to assume our responsibility.

Mr President, the images of the joy of the Palestinian population at the ceasefire, or of the families of the three hostages released, create hope. But nothing is guaranteed and everything else is missing. We must ensure that it does not turn back and we cannot accept the continuation of the illegal occupation. Trump and Biden dispute who has the most credits in the deal, but are both complicit in the genocide. Netanyahu remains unpunished despite the international arrest warrant. The European Union still does not recognise the genocide and maintains the association agreement with Israel. Meanwhile, Israel maintains laws that impede the action of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Even here, there are those who want to cut off your support when you need reinforcement the most. The hope for peace and justice continues to reside in a social majority that maintains the demand for freedom for Palestine and obliges the institutions, including this Parliament, to do something decent.

Madam President, Commissioner, more than a quarter of the European population - almost 30% in the case of women - is barred from basic citizenship rights. Getting out of the house, communicating with a public service, taking a transport, walking on the promenade are activities that can be impossible for many people with disabilities. In the European Union, the second richest economy in the world, there is still not the accessibility promised since the last century. For people with disabilities, there is not even the rule of law. There are Member States, such as mine, Portugal, where women with disabilities are sterilised against their will. And while the disability movement has put independent living into the discourse of the institutions, we still see European funds serving institutionalisation rather than independent living. The disability strategy, rather than appearing, needs to be effective. And we hope, Commissioner, that you will begin the mandate by making sure that these steps are really worthwhile.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, a reconfiguration is under way in the Middle East which involves the annihilation of the Palestinian people and the Kurdish people, and in which Israel and Turkey are allies and count on the support of the European Union, despite international law, the United Nations Charter, the Convention against Genocide, despite the Sakharov Prize for Kurdish women who fought ISIS. I hear democracies against autocracies here, and I see Turkey in NATO, or the European Union, like Putin, doing business with Libya. Who do you want to fool? The so-called democratic right is allied with the extreme right of Netanyahu or Erdogan. And the Socialists and Greens just want to be in the picture of this European governance. I wonder if it doesn't weigh on their conscience. Ursula von der Leyen was in Israel and forgot about Palestine. Yesterday, in Turkey, he forgot about the Kurdish people and women. And the Council, what will it say? Will the choice of Antonio Costa change anything?

Mr President, what makes this Parliament more concerned about TikTok than X or Meta? It follows the agenda of the right, the far right, Trump's agenda, from American warmongering to the trade war with China. The issue of disinformation and the information domain is not new, it is old. The dimension is that it's new, with global networks and billion-dollar investments promoting the far right, because billionaires know who protects them. That's why Musk invested in Trump, to earn even more. In TikTok, Meta or X, self-regulation is just another lie. The networks censor the words "genocide" or "Palestine" while promoting all misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic hatred. Refusing rules and transparency is not freedom of expression. It is the destruction of democracy in favor of the billionaires' game.

Mr President, the power of the tobacco industry is enormous. Their lies are responsible for countless premature deaths and extremely serious health problems. Its interference in political power is legendary and, if we leave, it has more power than any parliament. As in the past, the tobacco industry today hides the dangers of its new products. Heated tobacco, e-cigarettes and other aerosols have complex compositions that include chemicals associated with a wide range of diseases: cancer, cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory diseases. They also hide the fact that these new products also harm secondary smokers. Particularly serious situation for the most vulnerable: children, pregnant women, who have chronic diseases. Parliament’s resolution aims to: tell the Commission that now is the time to update the legislation, considering the dangers we already know. It is not a question of chasing smokers, but of imposing rules on an industry that is very interested in profit and that despises public health. An industry interested in maintaining a cloak of opacity about all this and which, as the debate in Parliament has shown, unfortunately has many allies here. On the left, we demand transparency and action to defend the population.

Madam President, there is silence in this debate. The right, which calls theft the taxes that pay public services, is silent in the face of the theft that hides in the bill of the light that we all pay to the big energy companies. The marginalist model makes us pay for energy that we do not consume. The President of the European Commission acknowledged the problem more than two years ago and has done what she does on these occasions: Nothing. As energy profits skyrocket, there are 100 million people in energy poverty in Europe. In Portugal, a quarter of the population has to choose between eating or heating the house. Privatization of energy was a mistake. Energy is an essential good and should be treated as a human right. It is strategic for the whole economy and critical in the fight against climate change. What to do and now: reducing reliance on fossil fuels, re-establishing state-owned enterprises with ambitious investment plans, regulating prices, capping and taxing windfall profits.

Mr President, the Draghi report recognises that Europe has stagnated in industrial policy and innovation and that the green and digital transitions will be a mirage if nothing is done. But change requires three choices that the neoliberal consensus that governs Europe refuses. Public services: there are no skills or innovation without public education, public science and public institutions that invest in lines of research that do not give quick returns, but that make a difference in the long run. State-owned enterprises: to ensure, develop and enhance skills. Privatization and financialization have destroyed some of Europe's most innovative companies. Draghi's proposal only seems to reinforce this trend. Thirdly, public planning. Leaving the market only gave parasitic rentism and inequality. We can and should do much better. Decarbonisation, climate justice, renewal and expansion of public services are a strategy to put skills at the service of a better life, a good life.

Mr President, stigma, lack of health care and deteriorating living conditions have aggravated the mental health crisis. Younger generations have pushed the issue into the public debate, but answers are still missing. There are three main obstacles. Prejudice: To mark World Mental Health Day is also to combat silencing and disinformation. Lack of accessible care for all: when European health services were built, there was no awareness of the centrality of mental health; today, we need to add this dimension to public services and not make it a new area of business. Holding: mental health is the result of multiple realities, including work – this year’s theme is particularly important. Precariousness, unregulated schedules, uberization and inhumane work rhythms deteriorate mental health as well. To be poor, to be a woman, to be a racialized person or to be LGBTQIA+ is to be at risk, and it is not by chance. We need another organization of work, school and neighbourhood, a safe public space also in social networks and the digital world, the right to housing and care, a just transition. Mental health is public health; It requires diverse health care, from hospital to community, and it requires much more than health care. It is the society we are that determines the health we have.

Mr President, the regulation of medical devices has been created following a series of scandals and is absolutely essential. We can re-evaluate regulations and deadlines, but we will not lower criteria to please the industry. Security first. I leave four other priorities. Accessibility: There are commercial interests that have limited patients' rights. It is imperative to ensure that the entire population, especially the most vulnerable, has access to the medical devices they need. Transparency: the rationale for licensing must be available to the entire scientific community. Privacy: ensure that data collected by devices is not treated as merchandise or used for other purposes. And finally, regulation: the role of the European Medicines Agency is crucial and does not dispense with the intervention of the competent authorities of each country.

Madam President, abandoned land is burned land. Depopulation, lack of registration, austerity even in the forest and one of the largest eucalyptus areas in the world make Portugal a barrel of gunpowder. In 2024, we cried again, and we have the largest burnt area since the tragedies of 2017. When the rain comes, those who suffered the fire live in fear of landslides, and those who have responsibility for the safety of populations, such as firefighters or sappers, have no means or dignified career. To use the criminal debate to hide the lack of investment and devalue climate change is to protect major economic interests. Fires only reach this size because the territory is pasture for any ignition, criminal, accidental or natural. Climate inaction by the European Union and its Member States is the greatest threat to people's security.

Mr President, there are two mistakes to avoid in public health matters: alarmism and disinformation. The outbreak of Mpox type 1 poses little risk to Europe and we should not make abusive comparisons with other situations. We are facing a public health emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring regions, which requires European solidarity and planning. Solidarity because it is our humanitarian obligation. Solidarity because diseases are not fought with borders or armies, they are fought with vaccines, treatment and prevention. The variant currently circulating proves to be more dangerous, including for children. It is therefore not possible to explain the refusal of some Member States to increase donations, and the European Commission should make public the stock Vaccines in Europe. It would be unforgivable to postpone the donation of vaccines so that we are in the position of seeing vaccines already out of date in Europe, while the outbreak continues to claim victims in Africa. We need to do more to support the decentralisation of vaccine production, its development and also testing capacity. Epidemiological surveillance is guaranteed and all populations are protected only by rapid testing in regions where cases are reported. Lives have to be worth more than pharmaceutical profits. Secondly, Europe must have a contingency plan. I would remind you that there was only one case in the whole of the European Union and it was quickly brought under control. No alarmism, then. But to know the stock The aim of vaccines is also to protect the European population. In addition, the European Union should be able to draw up common and clear guidelines for travellers and ensure the best information for healthcare professionals, both for their protection and to ensure that any new cases are reported. Finally, public health services across the European Union need more investment and better care for their professionals. It will not be private health services that will make prevention or that will be able to respond to public health challenges.

Madam President, my gratitude to all those who are fighting against the flames that are devastating Portugal, who fought against the torrents of water that flooded Central Europe over the weekend, my solidarity with the people and my sorrow for all the victims. European solidarity in the civil protection effort and recovery is key, but we need more. Disasters can be natural, but the causes are very human, as these days prove. Climate change is happening faster and more intensely than expected and is the biggest threat to people's security. Every day that European institutions and governments delay their mitigation, the restoration of nature and the adaptation of territory and human infrastructure is the certainty of new disasters.

Madam President, Israel uses European weapons to kill innocent people, to kill children, to kill journalists and human rights activists. My own country, Portugal, keeps the flag on a boat carrying weapons to Israel, in violation of UN instructions, in an attitude complicit in genocide. The world is watching the genocide live, and even with the Israeli leaders themselves publicly confessing their intentions, the European institutions are not able to support Palestine and sanction Israel. Here in Parliament today, we have been quicker to ban the use of a Palestinian symbol, while the European Union has not yet been able to impose a sanction against Israel. As a result, the European Union loses credibility every day in the eyes of the world and its citizens. Protests against genocide are multiplying across Europe and these voices must be heard. History will not fail to judge those who today collaborate with the genocide in Gaza.

Madam President, the Draghi report has two merits: recognises the backwardness to which liberal policies have led Europe and assumes that we need massive investment. However, it fails in three fundamental choices. It advocates more market concentration, while ignoring the role of the state, including state-owned enterprises, in planning and implementing development strategies for Europe. Are we going to hand over the money and public interests to the private giants that have weakened our countries? It does not propose mechanisms for a fair distribution of investment. In this competitiveness, those who already have more difficulties are left behind. Finally, it proposes to pay the common investment with austerity in each of the countries. Anyone who, like me, comes from a country on the periphery of the euro knows very well how this idea can devastate the economy. With these choices, the grand plan turns out to be more of the same and will exacerbate inequalities in Europe.

Madam President, tens of thousands of people have been killed, especially women and children, hospitals and schools destroyed, in Gaza they are killing bombs, starvation and disease. The UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine states that Israel has deliberately distorted basic principles of international law such as the distinction between civilians and combatants and the principle of proportionality. Israel is bombing the areas it has designated as safe, we are witnessing genocide. The European Union has special responsibilities, it maintains an association agreement with Israel. It is also the weapons and European money that kill in Gaza. Everybody's watching. Everyone is seeing double standards in their commitment to human rights and international law. A debate on the situation in Gaza at the beginning of the parliamentary term gives credibility to the European Parliament. We therefore propose adding a debate on upholding international humanitarian law in Gaza as the first item on this afternoon's agenda.