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Lisbon, Dec 31 : Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said that his country will continue the “excellent work” done by Germany as it takes over the six-month rotating European Union (EU) Presidency.
On January 1, 2021, Portugal is scheduled to assume the Presidency of the the EU Council for the fourth time, reports Xinhua news agency.
In a video message on Wednesday, Costa congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel “on the excellent work at the helm of the EU”, highlighting “the joint purchase of vaccines and simultaneous distribution to all member states”, and the “approval of a robust response to the economic and social effects of the pandemic”.
Portugal Wants to Shrink the EU
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa
CARLOS COSTA/AFP via Getty Images
Portugal Wants to Shrink the EU
The EU is ‘not for everyone.’
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa set out his vision for a more unified Europe in a speech at the Catholic University of Portugal, in Lisbon, on November 23. Costa wants a Europe of shared values. His solution? Shrink the European Union.
“We have to ask ourselves … whether we should look at the EU in a spirit of greater flexibility, assuming that, just as Schengen or the euro is not for everyone, we have to have variable geometrics here in the future of the European Union,” said Costa. He said that Europeans need to decide “whether the EU is a union of values or whether, on the contrary, it is primarily an economic instrument to generate economic value.” He went on to say, “This distinction is very important because the lack of understanding of this distinction has certainly led to the depar