The Socialist Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, called for a deepening of economic and monetary union (EMU) and a considerable increase in the resources available to the European Union, during an exchange of views with MEPs meeting in plenary on Wednesday 14 March.
Welcoming the fact that the EU is currently experiencing a reasonably comfortable period, notably in reference to the economic crisis which the member states have overcome, Costa nonetheless called for the EU to respond to its citizens' expectations.
The rest of his speech focused mainly on solidarity and social Europe. He welcomed a return to growth in Portugal, the fact that his country came out of the excessive deficit procedure last year (see EUROPE 11810) and out of the excessive macroeconomic imbalance procedure last week (see EUROPE 11976), whilst having been capable, he said, of offering an alternative to austerity, with policies to generate more equality and solidarity. The MEPs on the Left of the European Parliament (S&D, Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL), warmly congratulated Costa on these points. He then called for inclusive and social growth, arguing that this is the only solution to the challenges of the climate, migration, security and the economy.
The same paradigms steered the principles which Costa would like to see for the European Union. Calling for the deepening of EMU, he considers that this process should come as part of a logic of convergence between member states. This, he said, could be translated by sharing banking risks or setting in place a stabilisation instrument to ride out asymmetric macroeconomic shocks, as proposed by the European Commission on 6 December of last year (see EUROPE 11920). The head of the Portuguese government also hopes to make the eurozone an integrated space, a space of cohesion, that benefits all its members and where its members respect the budgetary rules.
As suggested by the European Parliament (see other article), he also took position in favour of increasing the resources made available to the EU budget, to allow it to implement policies to benefit the citizens. This can be done, he explained, by increasing own resources and national contributions. This approach was welcomed by Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, and most of the MEPs. With the Commission to present its proposal on the post-2020 multiannual financial framework on 2 May of this year (see EUROPE 11959), Costa is lining up against cuts to the budgets of the common agriculture policy (CAP) and the cohesion policy.
He concluded his speech by referring to the difficult job ahead to meet the current economic, social, environmental and security challenges, but stressed that nothing is insurmountable. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)