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António Costa. European recovery fund “is not a new troika”

Regarding this economic plan that must be submitted for approval by the European Council next July, António Costa considers that it is a program “very balanced from the point of view of subsidies, loans and the solution found for a joint debt issue” .

In this sense, the Portuguese Prime Minister sees the next European Council as “a unique opportunity that we will have in July, in the first Council of the German Presidency, to be able to approve this program”.

“Businesses, workers and families need urgent responses to this economic and social pandemic, the other dimension of covid-19”, he stressed.

Joint strategy is the only solution

On the expiration of time, with the numbers of the most affected economies maintaining a negative progression in view of the permanence of the new coronavirus in the socio-economic plan, in addition to the health, the head of the Portuguese executive recalled that “there are times when politicians do not have choose not to do what is necessary ”and“ this is very clear ”.

“Time cannot be wasted, because the crisis requires an urgent response for everyone, not only for Spain, Italy or Portugal, but for all countries, also for those who benefit most from the internal market. It is essential for a global recovery of the economy ”, underlined Costa, to warn that this is a situation“ in which we all depend on each other ”.

Pursuing this idea, questioned by The vanguard on the joint strategy in the face of the new coronavirus, the prime minister used irony: “We can lose one, two, three weeks … But in the end, only the option remains to approve the Commission’s proposal, which has a good balance for everyone, both for those who demanded an ambitious budget and for the ‘frugal’. We have to focus on the essentials, which is to get a program robust enough to respond to this crisis ”.

In this sense, Costa left the alert to the fact that, not approving the recovery plan in July, it will not enter into force as early as January, at the start of 2021, “at a time when we will be almost a year of crisis and probably a second wave ”of the pandemic.

“The time to act is now,” said António Costa, recalling that this plan “is not a new troika. Each country will make its own program, according to the objectives and common rules ”.

Opposition to ‘frugal’ opposition

António Costa was the first head of government of the Union to react to the opposition of some countries in Northern Europe when the Commission gave the first signs that it was available to sign unprecedented aid to the Member States, in a manner as close as possible to the eurobonds (or coronabonds, as they came to be called). This idea of ​​“mutualization of debt” was soon opposed by the frugal group, where the Netherlands stood out for its unfortunate statements.

Asked if he maintained the criticisms he then made to the Dutch finance officer, António Costa explained that when he spoke, “it was a reaction to a very unfortunate intervention by the Minister of Finance [Wopke Hoekstra] in relation to Spain and Italy ”.

“This speech is disgusting”, were the words of António Costa in the face of the speech of the Dutch Minister of Finance at a meeting of the Eurogroup. Hoekstra would later step back and admit that his statements would have been too inflamed.

“A very strong and very clear answer was needed. I think we’ve already passed this phase. At the last Council, despite the existence of different opinions, there was a constructive spirit, which has nothing to do with the inquisitorial position of that minister’s statement.

No country can complain about Brussels. Today we can only complain about the capitals, ”said Costa to The vanguard.

Still on the economic dimension of the pandemic, António Costa left a warning: “We must realize that [a recuperação] it will be very difficult, because we will not go back to the February 2020 indexes in either a month or a year. It will probably take at least two years to get back to the level we were at when covid-19 appeared. ”

The Portuguese miracle?

Asked about the good Portuguese numbers in terms of mortality rate due to covid-19 when compared with other European countries such as Spain, Italy, France and the United Kingdom, António Costa was cautious, saying that “we have to be very restrained with comparisons, because the criteria followed [pelos vários países] continue to be very different ”.

“From the beginning, our goal is to try to control the development of the pandemic, preserve the capacity of health services, protect the elderly and the population at risk. We focused first on preventing exponential growth. Then we moved on to a second phase, in which we are, to maintain a proactive testing program to identify and isolate the risks of infection, ”he added.

On the emergence of new outbreaks of covid-19 in Portugal, as has happened in recent weeks, particularly in the Lisbon region, the Prime Minister considers that this is a possibility that we must always take into account: “Even in a situation under control there is always that risk of new outbreaks that can change the statistical reality, as we saw this week ”.

In this context, questioned about the recent measures taken to “confine 19 areas of the Lisbon region”, António Costa explained the plan designed for the capital: “It is not about Lisbon, but some neighborhoods in the neighboring municipalities. There is no aggravation. In these areas, there was no general reduction that occurred throughout the territory. There are 19 parishes out of a total of 3,091 in the country ”.

“Our action aims to reduce the number of cases, which affect the young and asymptomatic population, only detected by the proactive tests we do”, explained Costa, to add that “the hospital occupancy rate remains at 63%”.

In this context, addressing the issue of the reopening of borders in Europe, the Portuguese Prime Minister kept July 1 as the day on which the free passage between the two Iberian countries will be restored: “We will celebrate with dignity that day the opening of our border, the oldest in Europe and which, unfortunately, we had closed in these months ”.

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