The Prime Minister, António Costa, travels to Paris on Wednesday, where he and his French counterpart, Elisabeth Borne, will co-chair the VI High Level Portugal-France Meeting, this year featuring science, innovation and education.
In addition to António Costa, the Portuguese government will be represented by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Elvira Fortunato, of Education, João Costa, by the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Tiago Antunes, and by the Secretary of State for the Sea, José Maria Costa.
According to the Lisbon executive, the meeting with the French government will aim “to strengthen bilateral relations and take advantage of the opportunities arising from the commitment of both countries to promote research, science and technology, energy, digital and environmental transitions. promote”. . as well as in the oceans”.
“It aims to increase scientific exchange between Portugal and France and usher in a new phase of relationship between academic institutions, scientific institutes and innovative companies. The dynamization of Portuguese language teaching in France and the French language in Portugal will also be discussed, as well as the common interest in the conservation and potential of the oceans”, states in a note from the Portuguese government.
On the issue of the oceans, it should be noted that Portugal hosted the second United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon in 2025, with France hosting the third edition of this forum, in Nice, in 2025.
The last meeting between the Portuguese and French governments took place in Lisbon last October and focused on the issue of energy interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and Europe.
The French Prime Minister then promised António Costa the political commitment of the French government to move quickly with electricity and gas interconnections to the Iberian Peninsula.
António Costa, in turn, emphasized that the new network will have the capacity for “full use via hydrogen”.
“I hope that at the next meeting there will already be a more formatted project so that we can get funding through the European mechanism for financing interconnections. This is not a project for Portugal, Spain and France, but the creation of a large green corridor for the whole of Europe, in particular to support the countries of Central and Northern Europe, which are currently reorienting their sources of energy supply, taking into account the former dependence on Russian gas”, added.
Prior to this joint press conference, António Costa and Elisabeth Borne marked the conclusion of the program of cultural initiatives “Temporada Cruzada Portugal-França 2022” at the National Museum of Ancient Art.
In a short speech, António Costa defended the existence of an age-old value sharing between the Portuguese and the French, in a Europe facing a war in Ukraine, and believed that culture is the best way to convey these values .
Source: DN
