Top
  • 28-12-2020 12:21

Portugal: Challenge of opening new EU cycle


Lisbon, Dec. 28, 2020 (Lusa) - The resolution of the most difficult dossiers in the European Union - budget, Brexit and vaccines - has dispelled the worst fears of the future Portuguese Presidency, which now has the challenge and responsibility to open a new cycle in Europe.

"Time to act," the motto was chosen by Portugal for its six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union, was very much conditioned until the last days of December, the month of major decisions in the EU.

The multiannual budget and the post-pandemic Recovery Fund were not closed until 10 December, agreement on the future relationship between the EU bloc and the United Kingdom on 24 December and the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 took off across the Union of 27.

Three crucial dossiers which Portugal needed to see closed to allow for the new cycle it proposes to open, by putting the instruments available on the ground and framing them with its vision of a cohesive, social Europe open to the world.

In short, to lead the 'EU for a post-Covid era', in the words of European Council President Charles Michel after a meeting with Portugal's Prime Minister António Costa in Brussels in early December.

Concerning the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU budget for 2021-2027 (€1.09 trillion), Portugal wants to reach the end of its presidency in June, with all the regulations approved and programmes launched, i.e. to have the budget on the ground, said Portugal's foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, in an interview with Lusa on 15 December.

As for the Recovery and Resilience Fund, €750 billion to revive the European economy after the economic and social crisis caused by the pandemic, Portugal set itself the objective of coming to an end with all the national plans approved and seeing the first tranche reach the countries still in the first half of 2021.

These are the first and fundamental objectives of the Portuguese presidency, the minister then said.

The third is the challenge of free universal vaccination of Europeans and the contribution of Europeans to universal vaccination throughout the world.

Portugal does not expect to see the process completed in its six-month term, but that it is well advanced in all 27 member states, as it sees it as an essential element for a faster and more solid economic and social recovery.

Fourthly, then, the 'heart' of the Portuguese Presidency emerges: the 'definitive impetus' to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, translated into a strengthening of the European social model as a response to the crisis and as a factor of growth.

It is in this objective that the government defines as the great moment of the semester, the Social Summit, scheduled for 7 and 8 May in Porto.

On the agenda will be, among others, the new guarantee for childhood, the new regulatory directive on the European minimum wage framework, the strengthening of the youth guarantee, a new political approach to the issues of ageing and advances in the field of the European Union for Health.

Finally, the fifth major objective concerns the EU's external relations, an area in which Portugal wants to contribute to the opening up of Europe to a multipolar world in which relations with the United States, China, Africa, Latin America and India must be strengthened.

In this respect, the six-month period should be marked by a reunion between Europe and the United States, after four years of tension with Donald Trump, an opportunity for dialogue to return to being between allies and not adversaries.

The symbolic moment of this reunion is still being agreed, but it should take place during the Portuguese Presidency, with a Summit of the president of the United States with the leaders of the 27 in Brussels in the first half of 2021.

The Portuguese presidency also wants to use the historical links between Portugal and Africa to develop and implement a strategic partnership and India to relaunch relations with Europe.

Portugal holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council from 1 January to 30 June, followed by Slovenia, which in the second half of 2021 closes the trio initiated by Germany on 1 July 2020.

This will be the fourth Portuguese presidency of the EU, after those of 1992, 2000 and 2007.

MDR (LM)/IMYN // ADB.

Lusa