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  • 04-01-2021 20:04

EU/Presidency: Minister 'weakened' by spat over prosecutor nomination - analyst


Lisbon, Jan. 4, 2021 (Lusa) - The position of Portugal's minister of justice, Francisca Van Dunem, during the country's presidency of the Council of the European Union may have been weakened by the controversy over the nomination of a European public prosecutor, according to Miguel Poiares Maduro, an expert in European law and former government minister.

José Magalhães, a member of parliament for the governing Socialist Party who is himself a jurist, meanwhile said that it was necessary "to shed all light on this subject" after it emerged that an official note sent by the government to the European Commission referring to aspects of the CV of José Guerra had contained inaccuracies.

Poiares Maduro, who served in the Social Democrat-led coalition government from April 2013 to October 2015, said that the fact that "an official position of the Portuguese government" contained "objectively false information" could "undoubtedly weaken the position" of Van Dunem. He stressed, however, that he was not in a position to "make this assessment in all objectivity", since he did not know "to what extent this is already known or not by the other national governments" in the European Union, an aspect that he said "may be relevant".

Magalhães, for his part, said that more needed to be known about the false information in the letter and how it came to be there. Speaking in parliament, he said that "the minister will therefore go to the Assembly of the Republic, where everything concerning this matter will be discussed, without any time limit."

Poiares Maduro, meanwhile, also expressed the belief that "the case of the European Public Prosecutor's Office may be more problematic" for Portugal's Council presidency than that of the death in March of Ihor Homenyuk, a citizen of Ukraine, at the hands of the Immigration and Border Service (SEF) at Lisbon airport, but "as a Portuguese" he believes that the positions of both the minister of justice and the minister of internal administration, Eduardo Cabrita, "have been weakened".

These two ministers are respectively responsible for conducting the EU Justice and Home Affairs Councils that are scheduled during Portugal's six-month Council presidency.

Asked about the role of Portugal's presidency, the two experts highlighted different issues.

Poiares Maduro, whose ministerial portfolio was regional development, said that his expectations were "moderate", relating to the implementation of the EU's post-pandemic economic recovery plan and, in particular, the approval of national recovery plans, which he said was "most important for Portugal in the search for a compromise among member states."

As for the biggest event foreseen during the presidency - the Social Summit to be held in May in Porto - he said that "due to the few powers that the EU has in social policy" the debate on EU social policy issues would bring "nothing concrete". With that in mind, he suggested, Portugal should find a "more concrete" and "feasible" theme in an area where the EU could play a major role, namely the Portugal Social Innovation programme, which "has a lot of prestige ... and has been used by the EU itself as an example."

Magalhães, meanwhile, said that the outlook for the presidency was "favourable", since Portugal has benefited from "working together with the German and Slovenian presidencies" that preceded and succeed it, but above all "from the negotiation process led by Chancellor [Angela] Merkel to reach a positive result ... with regard to the Union's own resources."

However, he highlighted areas that "are systematically failing", such as migration policy and chagnes to existing rules on asylum.

In his view, the "enormous" amount of division between member states means that negotiations on this issue will be long-drawn-out, and "can hardly be contained within the time period of Portugal's term" as Council president.

Portugal has the EU Council presidency during the first half of 2021, which ends on 30 June.

JAYG/ARO // ARO.

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