These statements were made by Luís Montenegro during his initial remarks at a lecture titled “European Union and Portugal,” organized by the Institute of Political Studies at the Catholic University in Lisbon.
Speaking before about a hundred students, with the former President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, in attendance, the Portuguese leader addressed the “constraints” existing in the current international scenario, including the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the stagnation seen in Germany, and the economic fragility of France.
“But in Portugal, there is a context of opportunity and credibility that we cannot waste. We have an economy growing more than the European Union average and we have successive surpluses in public accounts,” he noted, after mentioning the country’s trajectory in terms of reducing unemployment and interest rates in the international markets since the “troika” era.
Luís Montenegro also highlighted that Portugal records these budget surpluses in a context where “taxes on labor income and companies are also being reduced.”
“And we continue to value incomes by increasing the national minimum wage, the average salaries, and pensions. This is only possible with economic dynamism. The situation we find ourselves in today has very few parallels in Europe. There might be two or three countries with a situation similar to ours, but better, I doubt there are any,” he concluded.
The Prime Minister began his speech by stating that he was on official visits to China and Japan last week, two countries where he noted that “Portugal’s standing is very high.”
Concerning the situation in the European Union, the leader expressed criticism and warned that the European bloc can only halt its political decline in the world if it becomes more robust economically.
“Without development and economic growth, everything is compromised. Economic growth is an essential prerequisite,” he advocated.
According to the Prime Minister, the European Union must first “narrow the technological innovation gap with the United States and China,” citing artificial intelligence as an example.
Montenegro argued that the European Union needs to increase strategic autonomy in “crucial areas” such as security, defense, and energy. Regarding the energy sector, he mentioned Europe’s “inability” to become “resilient” and referred to the delayed completion of interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the continent.
From this point on energy, the leader emphasized that in Brussels, “it is necessary to revisit the governance model” to enable “faster decisions.” He also commented on decarbonization, stating that Europeans “cannot self-penalize” and that the path must be based on “sustainability.”
Addressing the students at the Institute of Political Studies at the Catholic University, Luís Montenegro rejected protectionist economic models but immediately criticized a trend toward European external isolation in trade.
“Personally, I think it’s a declaration of failure and incapacity that the European Union does not finalize the trade agreement that took 25 years to negotiate with the Mercosur countries. This is a scandalous demonstration of incapacity to act, a demonstration of weakness. And I have said this in closed meetings with my fellow European Union government leaders and with the heads of European institutions,” he added.
