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  • 07-01-2021 08:18

EU/Presidency: Portugal is 'one of the most advanced' in negotiating recovery plan with EU - minister


Lisbon, Jan. 7, 2021 (Lusa) – Portugal is "one of the countries that is most advanced" in the process of negotiating the Recovery and Resilience Plan with the EU, the Foreign Minister said on Thursday.

The head of Portuguese diplomacy said that the government was already "technically negotiating with the European Commission", but would only be able to "formally present the plan once the ratifications had been completed", reiterating the expectation that, "if all goes well", Portugal could receive European funds "over the summer".

"We need the decision on the Recovery and Resilience Plan to be ratified in all 27 Member States. Once that process is completed - we hope, still in the first quarter - the European Commission can raise the €750 billion from the market".

Presented as one of the main priorities of the Portuguese EU Council presidency, which started on 1 January, the approval of Member States' national recovery plans, essential to release funds from the Recovery Fund, will coincide with the process of vaccination against Covid-19 at European level, a double challenge which leads Santos Silva to consider that "the most difficult thing is what remains to be done".

"Now the most difficult is to get the Recovery Fund and the new Multiannual Budget off the ground. And to do so at the same time as we manage to coordinate efforts of national states to make vaccination a success. We expect it to be at cruising speed somewhere in the second quarter of this year," he said.

The Foreign Minister assumed, however, that "this is a critical time" for vaccination, "because 450 million doses are not produced in one day.

"We are talking about a process that will run until at least a year from now. And it will only be reaching hundreds of thousands, and millions, over the second quarter of this year", he predicted, recognising that the EU bloc will only be able to "fully resume the single market and its essential element of mobility once vaccination has impacted on the EU as a whole", so coordination between the 27 is central.

In an interview in which all the key issues of the 'Portuguese semester' were addressed, Santos Silva referred to the tensions between the 27, recalling that the Portuguese presidency would continue to apply the procedures opened to Poland and Hungary for violations of the rule of law, an area in which the German presidency "has done little", while pointing out that the Union has "problems with the functioning of democracies on many sides", not only in those countries, but also in Portugal or France.

Without forgetting the 'reunion' with the United States, one of the vectors of opening up Europe to the world advocated by the Portuguese presidency, which, according to Santos Silva, should be careful not to exclude the Far East, the minister looked 'inwards', analysing one of the major frustrating issues among the 27: migration.

"It is very difficult today to migrate to Europe legally. What I am about to say is horrible, but it is not my opinion, it is what is happening. Sometimes it seems easier to try to enter Europe illegally. The great alternative is legal channels for migration, safe, orderly and respectful both to the interests of states and of people's rights. This is relatively simple to say, but complex to do", he argued.

Without "false expectations", the minister conceded that the "27 have, at the moment, no conditions to conclude the migration dossier", insisting that progress must be made in those areas where agreement seems possible.

Portugal took over its fourth presidency of the EU Council on 1 January, which will run through the first half of 2021, taking over from Germany and ahead of Slovenia, under the slogan "Time to act: for a fair, green and digital recovery".

AMG/AYLS // AYLS

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