Portugal’s foreign minister says Ukraine’s EU entry will solve food problem

EU enlargement is key for Portugal, Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said on Wednesday, citing possible economic opportunities, solutions to the problem of food sovereignty and that candidate countries have an Atlantic vision.

Rangel voiced Portugal’s position during a hearing in the European Affairs parliamentary committee on Wednesday.

“The Portuguese government’s position on enlargement is highly favourable for strategic reasons, and for this reason, it doesn’t have the reticence or reluctance that the previous government had,” said Rangel.

Ukraine’s accession “is fundamental for Portugal” because it will be “an economic opportunity – whenever there have been enlargements, there has been economic dynamism” and because it is “a clearly pro-Atlantic country”, the minister continued.

“We in Europe need Atlantic allies,” Rangel said, rejecting the idea that enlargement would be “a turn to the east”.

“It’s exactly the opposite: these are highly pro-Atlantic countries that will be Portugal’s partners, possibly the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland. By opening up to the Atlantic, they give the Union strategic Atlantic depth,” he also said.

“Ukraine’s entry will make it possible to solve the food problem”, he said, noting the “strategic importance of Ukraine’s entry” while also acknowledging that farmers will have “a lot of problems” and will therefore have to be compensated.

“This applies to Moldova, it applies to the Balkans, it applies to Georgia,” he added, referring to the other candidate countries, which currently include Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

Commenting on the recent Russian attacks on infrastructure in Ukraine, he said he expected “a new wave of migration, of 8 or 9 million people”, because the lack of energy “makes day-to-day life impossible”.

Speaking about possible institutional reform at the EU level, the foreign minister said that Lisbon would prefer not to have to revise the EU treaties – because “it would be quicker and less divisive” – but admitted that perhaps “the best way” would be through a “surgical amendment” of the treaties.

(Joana Haderer, Lusa.pt)