Costa considers defeat of Russia and strengthening of EU autonomy essential

ANDThese positions were defended by António Costa in the presentation of the book by Bernardo Pires de Lima, researcher and consultant to the Civil House of the President of the Republic, entitled “The zero year of the new Europe”, during a session that took place at the Belém Cultural Center.

With the President of the Republic sitting in the front row of the audience, the former leader of the executive and the PS took advantage of a passage from Bernardo Pires de Lima’s book, to, with humor, once again refer to the “irritating optimism” that was pointed out to him by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in 2016, during his first of three socialist governments.

“I was particularly pleased to see that the author argues that the optimism of will must prevail over the pessimism of reason”, commented António Costa.

In his intervention, the former prime minister maintained as a central thesis the idea that the Russian military invasion of Ukraine raises a question about the terms of Europe’s future security. “Russia’s defeat is difficult, but it is essential”, he argued, before referring to the “triple mission of the European Union” in the face of this challenge.

António Costa then pointed out that the European Union, in addition to its traditional policies, must mobilize resources for a common defense policy. And that the new enlargement of the European Union will take place this time, not for reasons of consolidating democratic transition processes, as has happened until now, but for reasons of protection against the threat from Russia.

This new enlargement, the former prime minister also pointed out, will shift the European Union’s center of gravity eastwards, with the Warsaw/Kiev axis gaining greater relevance, and Ukraine will be the fifth country in the European Union in terms of population and the largest in territorial area.

Still according to the perspective of the previous leader of the executive, the European Union will have to redefine its relations with the United States, warning at this point of possible negative effects that could result from the North American presidential elections next November, and counteract a rapprochement between China and Russia on a political level.

António Costa also left another warning: Member States will have to take a closer look at the article in the Treaty on European Union regarding the obligation to provide assistance if one of the countries in this European bloc is the target of external aggression. In other words, the Member States of the European Union will have to look at this article in the same way that the Member States of NATO have viewed Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

In his speech, the former prime minister also considered it essential that the European Union strengthen its strategic autonomy at a global level, speaking here about the dangers of disruption that exist in excessively long supply chains. As an example, he pointed to what happened with the crisis in the supply of essential products during the years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This strategic autonomy of the European Union, from António Costa’s perspective, must be based on a commitment to infrastructure and reindustrialization, but without any recourse to economic protectionism.

And he presented a basic reason to avoid protectionism: “The European Union only has 5% of raw materials, but consumes 20% of the world’s raw materials”, he concluded, with former ministers of his Government, such as Fernando Medina and Duarte Cordeiro , listening to him.

Read Also: Rangel criticizes “anomaly” in European Affairs supervised by Costa

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