Hope, faith, and renewal.

Christmas celebrations represent the biggest Christian festival worldwide. Beyond the festivities, family gatherings, and renewal of our faith, this period is always conducive to reflection on the concepts of brotherhood, justice, solidarity, and equality.

Brazil has been achieving very important socio-economic gains in the pursuit of a more just and balanced society, where the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest is gradually being reduced.

This year, which is drawing to a close, will be marked by a significant advancement in the concept of Brazilian citizenship. Society took to the streets to pressure and demand higher quality in the provision of public services. The institutions, in turn, responded to these demands by modernizing various laws.

The Federal Senate has made significant contributions in this regard and has passed important legislation. Many have already become law, and other proposals are still awaiting deliberation by the Chamber of Deputies. In the first half of the year alone, more than 40 projects were approved.

Among these are the requirement of a clean record for civil servants in all three branches of government, the elimination of retirement as a disciplinary penalty for convicted judges and prosecutors, the automatic loss of parliamentary mandate after the case is definitively judged, the aggravation of the crime of corruption to a heinous crime, the full regulation of labor rights for domestic employees, the facilitation of citizen-initiated projects, among many others.

Other proposals that originated and were voted on in the Federal Senate have already become laws. Among them are the new criteria for the State Participation Fund, the allocation of oil royalties to health and education, the definition of a criminal organization, the national system for combating torture, and the Youth Statute, which had been under consideration for nine years.

Equally relevant were the renegotiation of debts for farmers in the semi-arid region, the tax exemption for the production and marketing of alcohol, subsidies for sugarcane producers, the regulation of lottery concessionaires' activities, the regulation of the professions of cowboys and football referees, and transparency in copyright law.

From an institutional point of view, it was also a very productive year for the National Congress. This is because we managed, in court, to overturn the preventive control of the constitutionality of projects, we changed the criteria for analyzing vetoes, and we also made progress with the mandatory budget.

As a Brazilian, and as President of a branch of government that is helping to implement fairer social policies and more modern laws, I am left with a sense of duty fulfilled. May this spirit focused on the collective good and on equality be repeated in 2014 as well.