The President of the Republic defended this Friday that the migration problem in the European Union can probably only be solved with a flexible solution in which countries that are excluded because they do not want to receive migrants contribute by paying.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, This issue must be managed “intelligently, timely and with flexibility”, meaning that “not everyone has to agree on everything, but a very strong core group that agrees”.
“This is open to others, if they want to come in – if they don’t want to come in, they contribute by paying,” the head of state added, who answered questions from journalists in New York about statements made today by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
Countries that “don’t want to have migrants” or that “don’t want to have migrants in a certain way, with a certain regime” can be left out, “but they have to be at least supportive, because those who do are who are going to receive them , are doing their best to make an additional payment to compensate for those who do not receive it,” he insisted.
The President of the Republic said that migration will be “one of the themes” of the informal meeting of heads of state of the Arraiolos group that will take place in Portugal, in Porto, between October 5 and 6, where the war will break out. will also be “discussed” in Ukraine and “the future of the European Union” in general terms.
Josep Borrell stated today in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian that the migrant problem threatens to become “a dissolving force for the European Union”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was questioned about this position of the head of diplomacy of the European Union at the end of a visit to the Chelsea market, where he was accompanied by the Ambassador of the United States of America to Portugal, Randi Charno Levine .
The head of state responded that regarding the migration issue, “it will be difficult to reach an agreement” between everyone and “probably the only way” to face these and other problems is with “a very flexible European Union.” with “multiple statutes”, as is already the case with the single currency and with foreign and defense policy.
“Anyone who does not want to participate in migration must accept the role of others, they must understand and be supportive,” he reiterated.
According to him, the architecture of the European Union is not at stake, but the European Union “cannot waste all the time in the world deciding on this; it must therefore take steps in time for enlargement”.
At the Chelsea Market, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, accompanied by the North American Ambassador to Portugal and her husband, Jeffrey E. Levine, passed a cafe owned by Portuguese-American businessman Joey Bats, which sells pasteis de nata, and which he noted as an example of a rejuvenated Portuguese community.
“It’s a different community, it’s another projection of the Portuguese economy, and that’s good,” he declared.
The President of the Republic said that “this area happens to be very well known to the US Ambassador to Portugal”, Randi Levine, and that her husband, Jeffrey Levine, “is one of the great investors in Manhattan” and “was based on the birth , twenty years ago, of this market”.
Source: DN
