The Prime Minister, António Costa, clarified this Friday that compliance with the rule of law is a red line for the Portuguese Government and that he agrees with the conditionality imposed on European funds. The leader of the Socialist Executive denied being aligned with Hungary and Poland and argued that countries that do not comply with the rule of law “cannot be part of the European Union (EU)”.
In a preparatory debate in Parliament on the European Council scheduled for the 11th, António Costa started by referring to Portugal’s alleged alignment with Hungary and Poland in criticisms of the rule of law as a conditionality mechanism in accessing EU funds, as “ the elephant that is not on the agenda but is obviously in the room ”.
This is because, in an investigation published by the newspaper “Público”, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski claims that Portugal was “very critical”, at the preparatory meetings of the European Council (whose minutes are not disclosed) in relation to the rule of law safeguard mechanism.
Asked about this issue during the European Council preview debate, António Costa was quick to deny the Polish ruler. “What we want is not just that there is a Budget. It is also that the rule of law is enforced and guaranteed in all member states. In Portugal, I hope that there is no doubt about what is the position of our country on this matter ”, he stressed.
“What I say here in the Council and said in Budapest is that the Copenhagen criteria, which serve to join the European Union and which are mirrored in the fundamental values contained in Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty and are not mere requirements for access community funds; they are requirements for membership of the EU, ”he said, noting that“ a country that does not comply with the values set out in Article 2 cannot be part of the EU ”.
António Costa also defended that what is foreseen in the European treaties must be applied “whenever and whenever there is any suspicion that a Member State violates the principles of the rule of law or any other of the fundamental values of the EU”. About violations of the rule of law in the EU, he said that “there are two processes that are open” and “it is time to stop being stopped and be subjected to a decision”.
“If someone does not schedule because they fear that there is not a necessary majority, that political consequence must also be assumed. Now, it is not possible what is not possible is this mirror game, in which one does not want to solve problems head on. The values are not subject to commercialization ”, he stressed.
He also stressed that what led Portugal to apply for EU membership “was not the single currency, which at the time did not even exist, nor did it join an internal market, which did not exist”. “What determined Portugal’s application for membership in 1977 were values. It was to consolidate our democracy and our freedom ”, he explained.
Funds must (even) be approved at the next European Council
António Costa stressed that the agreement “really has to be reached” at the next European Council and acknowledged that, due to the impasse, the meeting may take several days. “But there has to be an agreement”, he stressed, explaining that “what is at stake is not only the Recovery and Resilience Program”. “What is at stake is the EU budget that has to come into force at 00:00 on January 1 next year,” he said.
“The EU’s mechanisms are not as dramatic as the American shutdown but they are quite dramatic. There will only be payments in the first pillar of the CAP, for the functioning of the European institutions, but payments from cohesion funds will practically not exist ”, he added.
Without an agreement, António Costa said that there will be no bazooka and “even the shotgun” that Portugal and the other European countries already have “will no longer work”. “There is no point in postponing what really needs to be resolved,” he said, recalling that the agreement’s principles had already been approved in June and that “accepting to reopen any agreement is accepting to open the door to a stranger that we do not intend to open”.
“These mechanisms have been created, are approved and should not be changed. You can work on them, but you can’t work on revising the established mechanisms, ”he reiterated.
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