On Thursday 3 December, Nuno Brito, the Portuguese ambassador to the European Union, expressed his hope for a gradual “ normalisation” of work within the European institutional machinery during the first half of 2021, with a resumption of physical meetings as the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccination becomes more widespread.
At an event organised by the European Policy Centre think tank to present the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council for the first half of 2021, Brito also praised the “considerable effort” of the EU institutions to continue functioning despite the impact of the two waves of the pandemic.
The Portuguese ambassador mentioned three issues that will inevitably have an impact on the work of the Council of the EU: the current impasse on the post-2020 EU budget, the outcome of the post-Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom, and the new Biden administration in the United States.
“I hope that, in January, we’ll already be in the implementation phase” of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the Next Generation EU recovery plan, said Brito. He did not, however, outline potential escape routes from the impasse caused by the Hungarian and Polish vetoes (see EUROPE 12613/6). If the post-2020 EU budget is approved, the EU-27 will have to finalise their national recovery plans, which will then be assessed by the European Commission and the Council of the EU. The first financial assistance payments would then take place next spring under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the main budgetary instrument of the EU recovery plan.
It is clear that the Portuguese Presidency will be placing the social dimension at the core of its political priorities (see EUROPE 12614/2). Brito mentioned holding a conference in Porto in early May, followed by an informal European summit along the lines of the 2017 Gothenburg Summit (see EUROPE 11907/1). The EU’s response to the health and economic crises caused by Covid-19 needs to be “inclusive” and to involve defence of the “European social model”, he said. He also stressed the need to maintain the EU’s fundamental values and respect for the rule of law.
As well as continuing with the EU’s priorities for environmental and digital transition, Portugal wants to give pride of place to external considerations by holding an EU/India summit in the spring, and organising an EU/Africa summit “sometime in 2021”. “We need to listen to Africans; it's not for us to preach to them about what they need”, said Brito. He added that the Council of the EU will play a role in redefining EU-US relations (see EUROPE 12614/4).
The ambassador also talked about organising an international summit on the world’s oceans, which the pandemic prevented from occurring but which still needs to take place. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)