EU Policymakers · ATLAS

Isilda GOMES
Member of the European Parliament · Portugal · S&D · Partido Socialista
What Isilda GOMES has said (11)
- 2025-07-03 “E-002722/2025 Answer given by Mr Dombrovskis on behalf of the European Commission The bridge between Alcoutim and Sanlúcar de Guadiana is part of Investment RE-C07-i03: Cross-border links of the Portuguese recovery and resilience plan (RRP). It is financed by loans. The European Commission is working closely with Portugal on the implementation of Portugal’s RRP. The Regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) states that the deadline to complete all reforms and investments, including those financed by loans, is 31 August 2026. This means that any action taken by Member States after that date cannot be considered for the assessment of milestones and targets. As per the Regulation, all RRF disbursements must be made by 31 December 2026. This holds for measures financed by both grants and loans and there is no exception possible. To mitigate possible delays, Member States should comprehensively review their RRPs as soon as possible to ensure all milestones and targets can be implemented by the 31 August 2026 deadline. Member States should explore replacing measures which cannot be fulfilled by the deadline to safeguard their RRP allocation. For more information, please see NextGenerationEU - The road to 2026, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, of 4 June 2025 1 . 1 https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/ad5f00c9-4101-41a0-9d8fe78f06c0c7ed_en?filename=COM_2025_310_1_EN_ACT_part1_v8.pdf.”
Cohesion and rural funding
- “Da aqui un ejemplo interessante e também para esta area seja vista. Sorry, I'm speaking Portuguese. On the startups O incubadora de empresas e importantisimo porque se soucier dos o tres para trabajar en uma determinada area naturalmente nessa incubadora o nessa startup trabalham até para Austria e quando Sao proprios causa de trabalho a ciudadanos amplia o numero de ciudadanos Trabalhou nesse tipo de economia. Mas nao esta se abre un espacio de co-working space startup para a poor digamos a funcionamento aqui é a sua proposta trabalho é dificil consigam fazer isso e EU de facto. President. Camara criar uma startup space co-working e. Empresas estao instalada no sido empresarial do trabalho muito agente mas criaturas e comenzaron con otras pessoas a trabalhar. Por tanto, Como deve olhar também para quem é muito obrigado.”
EU support for bioeconomic applications
- “Madam president. Commissioner. This is a very important moment. The socialists voted for the affordable housing plan, we're going to achieve it. We're going to achieve a social reality. Many do not understand the need for this and feel that markets can be left in control of everything. Markets alone cannot solve such a problem as this. What we have seen, in fact, is that the very lack of public intervention as what has created the crisis which we've had. We need public sector intervention. We need public housing, because only thus can we deal with this terrible circumstance where families find they cannot afford to buy, cannot afford to rent housing at market prices. Of course, not all countries are in the same position, so EU funding is absolutely vital and I very much hope that this plan will also include significant EU fund availability sourcing resources to help particularly homeless young people so they can have a decent home.”
EU housing policy
- “We've seen that a funding is insufficient with this mid-term analysis. We need to make sure that the objectives are met by the end of the programming period. Regarding civil society, we've noticed that there's a lot of interest in this program. You've mentioned more than 3 million people involved. We see that there's a will to use available resources. They need to be used efficiently to meet objectives such as gender equality, combat violence against children, and women fighting discrimination. I see, therefore, that the main mistake we could make would be to not make sufficient funding available for our social workers. To ensure that this programme is implemented at a time where there is a clear will for action. This report can just not just be a look at successes, but we should look at our conclusions and renew our commitment towards the future, a future in which civil society will be a protagonist in which there can be criticism, but in a constructive way, which is something that is fundamental to keep European democracy alive. Thank you.”
EU expenditure on social policy
- “Thank you very much. This is a very important issue. Of course. Now, one of the reasons why the cost of housing is so high is the lack of land to build on in certain areas in Europe. There are lots of restrictions in certain areas on building housing. And we've reached a level whereby it's impossible to actually build more houses because there isn't enough affordable land to build on. And one of these countries where this is the case is my country, Portugal. Now things have been opening up slightly Likely certain areas have been declared apt to build on that were not so before, but I think we need to raise awareness of the problem. And then the public procurement rules, rules which are often not respected. They're often very restrictive rules when it comes to building. And sometimes you need to go through a process that takes years to resolve. And then there's the issue of the recovery and resilience plans and the funds that are available for that. A lot of work has been done as a as a result of those funds being available, but I think more needs to be done. Governments need to do more to ensure that money that is earmarked for the RF can actually be used in other areas such as housing. And essentially what we need to do is we need to work to ensure that this money can be used to build housing, because you can make all the financing available, but if it's not used, then it's not going to end up supplying the homes that we need. Thank you.”
EU policy on urban development
- “Thank you, chair. Vice president. Something here is really concerning me. This has to do with public housing. Social housing. We know that some countries have 4% of social housing, and then others in the EU have 30%. So the funds that are allocated by the EU should serve. That to strike a balance. It should be used to solve the problems of the most vulnerable families of young people who have a job, but who still have to live with their parents. They can only move out at 30 at the age of 30 or so. So social housing is fundamental and we need to ensure that the funds are applied correctly. We need to look at what the percentage is of social housing. Now that is cohesion. Cohesion is about improving the circumstances of the most vulnerable among us, because middle income people are more likely to be able to buy a house. But I would like to also draw your attention to something else. Speculation. Investment funds. They are investment funds in some countries that do not pay taxes, and yet they own entire neighborhoods. And their only purpose is to speculate and to sell when the prices are high. Thank you.”
EU policy on urban development
- “Madam president, ombudsperson, the European Ombudsman has an important role to play in making sure that there's quality administration in the EU. Having inquiries into maladministration and promoting transparency and accountability in the EU that contributes to the EU institutions, making them more effective and efficient. But it also means that it strengthens the trust that citizens have in their institutions. For this reason, in the report, we should not be putting in constructive elements into the report that are just strengthening the anti-democratic approach. It is essential for the ombudsperson to have the right instruments available to defend the rights of citizens and to promote good EU administration that is open, responsible and worthy of the trust of EU citizens. This is a question of respect for our citizens. Now we recognise the quality of Miss O'Reilly's work, but I think that we can already recognise that our current ombudsperson, Miss Nino, is carrying out excellent work and that we will be able to continue working with our inequality way in the future. Thank you.”
Activities of EU Ombudsman
- “President, cohesion policy is a major achievement of the European Union. The aim is to ensure that no region is left behind. We deal with historic imbalances thanks to the market, thanks to the single market. And the aims of the cohesion policy are laid down in the treaties because they're so important. So the priorities of the cohesion policy cannot be made subordinate to other policies. And we're not just talking about economic justice here. We're talking about social justice, territorial justice. It's about the very trust of the citizens in the EU. That's why I call on the European Commission to step up its level of ambition for the cohesion policy, when it puts forward its proposal next week. Particularly, we need to focus on ESF plus the European Social Fund, and we need to have funds to deal with Europe's housing crisis. Europe's housing crisis is one of our most pressing issues in the regions. We need more cohesion, more solidarity and more Europe. Thank you.”
Cohesion and rural funding
- “Thank you very much. What I can say is that this report contains potential measures to allow us to overhaul the overall housing policies, as we've known them up to now. Of course, we need investment. And I already said that we need European funds and we need specific funds to invest in this sector, because otherwise it will be very difficult to tackle the problem. But as I see it, this report does include a set of measures to be able to provide a solution to this problem.”
EU housing policy
- “Thank you very much. What I can say is that this report contains potential measures to allow us to overhaul the overall housing policies, as we've known them up to now. Of course, we need investment. And I already said that we need European funds and we need specific funds to invest in this sector, because otherwise it will be very difficult to tackle the problem. But as I see it, this report does include a set of measures to be able to provide a solution to this problem.”
EU policy on urban development
- “Madam President, young people who live with their parents in their parents home until they're almost 40 years old, overcrowded dwellings and more and more homeless people. These are more and more common realities. And we all acknowledge that for millions of Europeans, buying a house or renting a house has become almost impossible. So we have this housing crisis, and the EU has to shoulder its responsibility. And I think this report is a step in the right direction. It acknowledges the fact that housing should be a policy priority and that it is a right, but we have to go beyond that. We need specific EU funding for housing, and the right wing of this House still rejects that. We need more public housing, both for more disadvantaged people but also for middle income families. We also need to deal with homelessness because we should be ashamed of having homeless people on our streets. We need political courage and boldness to take this path, because Europeans wouldn't forgive us if we didn't do that.”
EU housing policy