The Portuguese Prime Minister this Monday named former government leaders Angela Merkel and Mario Draghi and former European Commissioner Pascal Lamy as possible elements of a “committee of wise men” to reflect on the future of Europe.
“President von der Leyen, in the last conversation I had with her, showed that she thinks it’s time to appoint a ‘committee of wise men’ to think about the future of Europe. I would would love to see people like Angela Merkel, Mario Draghi, Pascal Lamy thinking about this”admitted António Costa in an interview with the newspaper Público published in this Monday’s edition.
Angela Merkel and Mario Draghi were former heads of government in Germany and Italy, and Frenchman Pascal Lamy was European Commissioner and Director-General of the World Trade Organization between 2005 and 2013.
In the interview, conducted by journalist Teresa de Sousa, the leader of the Portuguese executive recalled the efforts of French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the future of Europe in the context of the war in Ukraine, and welcomed the group of experts set up for this purpose at the last Franco-German summit.
Costa defended that the creation of a European Political Community (CPE) “is a good initiative”, which could lead to “a Europe with a more variable geometry”.
“There is the dimension of the EPC, where there are countries that don’t want to enter, like Norway, or countries that want to leave, like the United Kingdom, and then we have this circle of the European Union,” he stated, adding: “I’m not sure if there were some current member states that felt better in the CPE or with an active participation in the single market but nothing else. And I think there is room and urgency for a hard core that wants to increase the level of integration deepen in the field of foreign policy and security, of fiscal solidarity, of industrial policy …”.
Faced with Germany’s opposition to this strategy, Costa replied: “The challenge we face forces us all to reconsider our previous historical positions”, citing the example of the current German chancellor, who, not in his youth , opposed the installation of US missiles in the country and is now taking “a Copernican leap in German defense policy”.
Concerning Ukraine’s intention to join the European Union, António Costa reiterated the position he has taken from the beginning, saying that he felt “positive appreciation” from President Volodymyr Zelensky for “the frankness” of the Portuguese position .
“We have warned that we cannot ignore the various countries in the Western Balkans who are also candidates and who are waiting longer. Just as we have to be serious when we talk to Kiev, we have to be serious when we talk to these countries. ” .”he repeated, as an extension “raises three kinds of problems”.
From the outset, he pointed to “a problem of a political nature”, as “Ukraine will become the EU’s fifth largest country, implying a new balance in the internal balance of power” and, at a “second level”, the institutional matter “.
“I won’t go into details, but I’ll give you an example. Ms von der Leyen needed a lot of imagination to find 27 portfolios for 27 commissioners”noticed.
In the interview, the Portuguese Prime Minister also defended that Europe needs to adapt to the new context created by the war in Ukraine.
The European Union “must have the humility to realize that the world has changed and that it must adapt very quickly to the new reality, otherwise it will find itself in that situation of aristocrats who, in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, didn’t realize that the world was changing and that if they didn’t keep up with the change, they would quickly become bankrupt aristocrats,” he concluded.
Source: DN
