THE meet the planned agenda with a trip to Berlin, António Costa said it was “a great pleasure to return to the Chancellery, for a meeting with the Chancellor Merkel, “at a very important moment for our countries but also for Europe”.
“At a time when, again – whether for reasons of pandemic of coronavirus, either because of the situation of the migration crisis, or because of the global challenges facing our economies – more than ever it is important to reaffirm the strength of the European Union “he continued.
The Portuguese Chief Executive again highlighted the importance ofncia that the different Member States “seek to work together” so that we can achieve what is “an ambitious agenda”.
“It is essential that the different Member States try to work together, so that we can achieve what is a very ambitious agenda that was presented by the Council, the program of a new Commission, we have to create conditions so that it can fulfill its mission well. mandate and carry out what are the aspirations of all Europeans “, he said.
The meeting between Costa and Merkel, at a working dinner at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin, will serve to “prepare new European councils and the Portuguese presidency of the European Union, in the first half of 2021”, a source from the Prime Minister’s office told Lusa, recalling that the “future” multiannual financial framework remains open in the face of sharp differences at the last extraordinary council in Brussels “.
António Costa gave a voice at the European Council of 20 and 21 February the rejection of the proposed EU multi-annual budget for 2021-2027 by the “Friends of Cohesion” group, which held a summit on 1 February in the Portuguese city of Beja, and it was’renamed‘from “Friends of an ambitious Europe”.
The proposal, which was unanimously rejectednime, contemplated a global amount for the next seven years equivalent to 1.069% of the EU’s Gross National Income, even less ambitious than the proposal presented in December passed by the Finnish presidency (1.07%), outright rejected.
On the one hand, there are the net contributors, namely a ‘quartet’ formed by Austria, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden – classified as “forages“by António Costa during a debate last Tuesday in the Assembly of the Republic -, who consider excessive a global budget that exceeds 1% of the Gross National Income (GNI), and want “modern policies” to be given priority over cohesion and agriculture.
On the other side are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, LituThenia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania and also Italy, which continue to oppose a budget that sacrifices cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy.
Germany starts the presidency of the European Union (EU) in July and precedes the Portuguese presidency, which starts on 1 January 2021.
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