António Costa defended in Parliament on Wednesday that the EU should establish a “permanent mechanism” to respond to crises rather than “transitional mechanisms”. “I hope the European Union understands that crises are recurring crises and that is why we must have a permanent mechanism to respond to crises and not create a transition mechanism for every crisis,” the Prime Minister said in a parliamentary debate that deliberately was planned. of the European Council meeting to be held in Brussels today and tomorrow.
On the same occasion, the head of government considered it essential for the European Union to reuse around EUR 200 billion of already issued but not yet issued common debt, with Portugal being responsible for a share of EUR 12 billion.
António Costa said he did not ignore the political difficulties inherent in reaching a consensus on a European scale, so that there is now a new debt issuance by Brussels, as well as the constitutional difficulties faced by some member states in issuing joint debt. . “But there is a need for pragmatic and urgent responses to the crisis we are going through. And there is a possible response that will not require new debt issuance, but simply the use of debt already issued by the EU and not yet used by Member States. “
According to him, “no more than 200 billion euros mobilized under the” Next generation be transferred to the Member States in the form of loans”. by increasing eligibility.”
In the case of Portugal, he specified, this permission to increase eligibility would be given at the level of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR): “That is, under the PRR allow for approx. Mobilize €12,000 million in loans that we do not use that we could mobilize to support, if necessary, our businesses most affected by energy costs.”
The debate also served as a sort of dress rehearsal for the discussion of next year’s national budget (OE2023). Mariana Mortágua, from the Left Bloc, accused the government of “pure political sadism” by refusing to cut VAT on electricity and gas. And then he described the bill as a “containment budget,” a phrase the prime minister disliked: “It’s eight billion euros to support families and businesses. You call this a containment budget?’
Inês Sousa Real, of PAN, asked the head of the government if there will be “more ambition” in supporting the Portuguese who, with winter approaching, will have difficulties heating the house.
André Ventura, from Chega, preferred to focus on the problem that Portugal sent six Kamov helicopters to Ukraine and asked António Costa if he feels “relieved” to give these six Kamov helicopters, since “they never worked” in Portugal . “Do you want to reach the end of the year and say, ‘Portugal gave Ukraine six Kamovs’, and then the [Presidente da Ucrânia, Volodymyr] Zelensky says to him: “Oh, Prime Minister, I thank you very much, but they just don’t accept it”. I find this unpleasant,” said Ventura, laughing from his couch.
In response, Costa reiterated that his government “absolutely condemns Russia’s war against Ukraine and that aid to Ukraine must be maintained.” Adding: “Only Mr André Ventura would have had the bad taste to joke about a tragedy such as the one suffered by the Ukrainians by the war unleashed by an autocratic enemy of democracy and freedom, such as Mr Putin,” he criticized Antonio Costa.
He went on to point out that it was an “express request from the Ukrainian government”. “I did not say that I would not yield, and we have admitted with great pride, in the same way that we have given away other material requested by Ukraine, and we will continue to yield so that Ukraine can defend itself, in the name of the international law, to guarantee national sovereignty and the integrity of its territory.” (with Lusa)
Source: DN
