Portugal’s PM wants “climate change, digital” engines driving recovery
António Costa said on Wednesday that the Portuguese presidency of the EU would give priority to an economic and social recovery guided by the "drivers of the climate and digital transition."
Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, said on Wednesday that the Portuguese presidency of the European Union (EU) would give priority to the post-pandemic recovery guided by the “drivers of the climate and digital transitions” and called for rapid ratification of national recovery plans.
Speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels to present the priorities of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU, Costa stressed that “the first is Europe’s economic and social recovery” from the Covid-19 pandemic, “driven by the climate and digital transitions.”
“First we must complete the ratification processes of the own resources decision in all member states, vote in this parliament on the regulation that has been agreed and finally approve the 27 National Recovery and Resilience Plans,” Costa said.
And he stressed: “We will only overcome this crisis in the Union as a whole.”
On October 15 in Brussels, Costa handed the first draft of the Recovery and Resilience Plan to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Last week, the Portuguese government approved the resolution on the European Union’s own resources in the cabinet and asked parliament to ratify it as a matter of urgency.
At issue is the European Council’s decision last July on a 750 billion euros Recovery Fund to tackle the crisis caused by Covid-19.
“We must implement the instruments for economic and social recovery” in the EU, he said today.
In addition to the Recovery Fund, this ‘bazooka’ also consists of the Union’s multi-annual budget for 2021-2027 for an overall amount of 1.8 billion euros.
“We must start implementing the programmes of the new Multiannual Financial Framework, in particular those which, thanks to the determination of the European Parliament, have benefited from a major strengthening, such as Horizon Europe, EU4Health, or ERASMUS+, which reinforce the European spirit,” Costa said.
He insisted that despite the “utmost attention that the fight against the pandemic requires,” the EU “must not neglect its strategic challenges”, which is why “the European recovery must be based on the drivers of the climate and digital transitions.”
“We are in a health emergency, but we are still in a climate emergency,” he added, urging the implementation of the European Ecological Pact to combat climate change, notably through the adoption of the new European Climate Law.
“This is the decisive decade, which requires more effort and ambition if we are to meet our commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,” he said.
Costa continued, “this is also the decade of Digital Europe”, so the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU will devote “particular attention to the new Digital Services Package, recently proposed by the Commission, as a key legislative instrument for the protection of individual rights and democratic sovereignty, and for bringing more competition to the digital market, stimulating entrepreneurship and creativity.”
“The recovery cannot be limited to meeting the needs of the present with cyclical stimuli, but with investments and reforms that allow us to come out of the crisis more resilient, greener, more digital,” he concluded.
The prime minister, António Costa, who chairs the presidency of the Council of the EU, discusses the priorities of the Portuguese presidency with the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday for the first half of the year.
